A word about General Hildyard. While the fighting had been going on round Lydenburg the General had been keeping his eye on Natal, chasing bands of Boers, fighting, dispersing them, and establishing fortified posts and restoring telegraphic communication at different points. On the 9th at Groen Vlei Lieutenant Watson, 1st Royal Dublin Fusiliers, and Captain Cracroft, 1st Royal Irish Fusiliers, were wounded. On the 10th the Boers were driven from Langwacht Pass, and the hills scoured in the direction of Utrecht. This quaint little Dutch town, containing a very big church, and some very small houses rendered picturesque by gardens full of blossoming fruit-trees, was soon reoccupied. The Royal Dragoons and 13th Hussars arrived there in advance of General Hildyard, and spread consternation among the Boers. Colonel Blagrove deposed the Llandrost, seized his effects, and let loose some British prisoners who had been in Boer clutches. The Dutchmen a few days later revenged themselves by committing an act of treachery. Some women in a farm floating a white flag invited a party of the 13th Hussars, who were patrolling some ten miles to the west, to enter and partake of refreshment. This they did. As they were riding from the house, they were fired on from within. These barbarities were far from infrequent, and the only method of dealing with the assassins was to destroy the homesteads which had harboured them. Vryheid was occupied on the 19th, the Boer position being turned by the Mounted Infantry, the Dutchmen in the neighbourhood causing a comparatively small amount of trouble. Most of the Boers had foreseen the trend of the British operations, and commenced to trek on the taking of Utrecht. Here we must leave the Natal defence force and return to the Chief. The 19th found Lord Roberts at Nel Spruit, all events having progressed, notwithstanding the mountainous nature of the country, with the rapidity and success which usually characterised the Field-Marshal's movements. Upwards of 3000 Boers had retreated towards Komati Poort, and of these many had dispersed into broken gangs, while more than 700 had crossed the Portuguese border. Thus the field operations were coming to an end, for, as the Commander-in-Chief put it, there were now left of the Boer army "only marauding bands." General Pole-Carew, with Henry's Mounted Infantry and the Guards Brigade, hewing the roads as they went through a jungle forked with ravines, arrived dust-choked at Kaap Muiden, capturing at the station 114 truck-loads of goods more or less valuable. One march behind the Guards, came General Ian Hamilton's column.