General B. Hamilton, as we know, over mountainous country followed Botha to the neighbourhood of Vryheid. The Boer force consisted of a concentration of some 800 men who had been hustled from other districts of the Eastern Transvaal. A laager was located east of Vryheid on the 10th of March, and General Bruce-Hamilton having blocked all exits in the Ngotsi valley, proceeded to attack it. The manoeuvre was rewarded. General Cherry Emmett, Botha's brother-in-law, and seventeen prisoners were taken, and Botha merely escaped by concealing himself in a kloof near the spot where his relative was seized. Eighteen more prisoners, some of importance in the fighting roll, were secured on the 18th. On the 1st day of April, near Springs, a laager was suddenly discovered by a party of Queen's Bays and some National Scouts under Colonel Fanshawe of Colonel Lawley's column. Immediately the Boers in great strength attacked the small British force, and in the close and spirited fighting, which lasted from dawn till dusk, Major Walker was killed, and Captains Herron, Ward, and Lieutenant Hill were wounded. As an instance of the hand-to-hand nature of the combat it may be mentioned that the butt-ends of rifles as well as the blades of swords came into play. Two squadron leaders and ten non-commissioned officers and men were killed and five officers and fifty-nine men were wounded. This concentrated body of the enemy was commanded by Alberts and Pretorius. Commandant Prinsloo, who was with them, was wounded. The Boers lost twelve killed and forty wounded. The middle of the month was spent by General B. Hamilton in sweeping from Middelburg to Standerton between the blockhouse lines. The hard-worked columns of Park and Williams and Spens were engaged in the undertaking, which was, though always hazardous, fatiguing as it was monotonous. One hundred and forty-five Boers were killed, wounded, or captured in the course of the operations.