General G. Hamilton and Colonel Pulteney were meanwhile moving, in continuous torrents of rain, around Utrecht and Vryheid in order to block all Boer attempts to break through northern Natal into the Orange Colony; and further south General Bruce-Hamilton, with the troops of General Spens and Colonel Allenby, hunted the Vryheid and Ngomi region with incessant activity, despite all the impediments of fog and bog and downpour. Scrimmage and skirmish varied the monotony of the hard work, and in the end 21 killed, 11 wounded, and 160 unwounded Boers, together with carts, ammunition, cattle, and foodstuffs, bore testimony to the pluck and endurance of the troops engaged. [Illustration: THE FIGHT AT BRAKENLAAGTE: BOERS CHARGING Drawing by John Charlton] TRANSVAAL (EAST) Colonel Benson was at this time continuing his system of midnight annoyance, which was telling on the nerves of the enemy and causing Botha to rack his brains to arrange a plan of getting quit of so ubiquitous and "slim" an antagonist. Moving from Middelburg on the 20th--with 3rd and 25th Mounted Infantry, three squadrons of Scottish Horse, 4 guns 84th Battery, two pom-poms, and the Buffs--Benson began moving to the south. He surrounded a laager south of Brugspruit on the 22nd, captured 37 prisoners, and marched next day to Bethel and on towards Rietkuil. During this march, on the 25th, the rearguard was heavily engaged by some 700 Boers under Groblaar, Trichardt, and Erasmus, who hoped to stop the night manoeuvres for a bit. But the Dutchmen were quickly repulsed (with the loss of Civil Surgeon Robertson and one man), and Colonel Benson moved on, impeded by many thunderstorms, towards Brugspruit _viâ_ Bakenlaagte. At this place there was considerable sniping, while the enemy on all sides, in the mists and fogs and rains, collected under Botha and Groblaar in order to effect a junction and at last bring things to a crisis. Colonel Benson, who hoped to halt at Bakenlaagte, found the place on the 30th already in possession of the enemy. Some fighting followed and the Boers took themselves off, and the columns moved gradually into camp covered by the rearguard, composed of 2 companies of Mounted Infantry, 2 squadrons 2nd Scottish Horse, 2 guns 84th Field Battery R.A., and one company of the 2nd Battalion the Buffs, the whole under the command of Major Anley, 3rd Mounted Infantry. The guns, a company of the Buffs, and 50 Mounted Infantry took up a position on an irregular ridge some 2500 yards from the camp, screened by posts of Mounted Infantry and the Scottish Horse on either flank and south of the ridge. The enemy meanwhile, in the wind and sleet and rain, taking advantage of the fact that the storm was bursting in the face of the British columns and of the vast expanse of rolling downs and the convenient hollows with which they were familiar, were creeping and congregating ant-like round flanks and rearguard. No sooner had the