At the end of February Lord Methuen's force, together with the small column under Colonel Benson, was actively engaged in hunting bands of marauders in the triangle--Klerksdorp, Potchefstroom, Ventersdorp. On the 4th of March the troops marched from Klerksdorp towards Hoopstad, thence to withdraw the garrison. _En route_ they, having left their convoy under strong escort on the road to Commando Drift, made a night descent on Wolmaranstad with the intention of liberating the British and Boer State prisoners who were known to be detained there. But at dawn when they arrived they discovered that the place was deserted! The sole, though not unimportant, result of their exertions was the capture of the Landdrost, Pearson, a person who had rendered himself notorious in connection with the cases of Messrs. M'Lachlan and Boyd, who with three burghers were shot at Wolmaranstad. The particulars of the dastardly murder of these men must be recorded, as they serve to show the innate brutality of the Boers, which in the earlier part of the war had been suppressed in hope to seduce the sympathy of the Powers. The news of the execution of five British subjects--so-called rebels--by Delarey's commando was brought to Klerksdorp by Mrs. M'Lachlan, whose husband, father, and brother-in-law had been among the victims. Most of them were burghers who had surrendered or left the country prior to the war, while the others were alleged to have taken up arms. The man Boyd, a British subject, had been detained in jail since July 1900 by the Landdrost, who induced him, with two others, to indite a message to the English praying them to come to their rescue. This was afterwards made the plea for sentencing the three to death. Among others sentenced were two burghers named Theunissen, well-known farmers of Klerksdorp, who had surrendered with General Andreas Cronje's commando in June, and had taken the oath of neutrality and refused to break it. Mrs. M'Lachlan, the daughter of the elder Theunissen, gave an account of her loss, narrating how she had taken coffins to the place of execution to bury the bodies of her father, brother, and husband, to whom she had been married only two years, while another lady made the following statement:--"The Boers have forty of our men prisoners there. Eight or ten have been condemned to be shot. They were tried by the late Landdrost of Klerksdorp, a man named Heethling, in conjunction with other members of the Court. The sentences were confirmed by Generals Smuts and Delarey, who sent men to carry them out. The four who were shot were Mr. Theunissen, his son, his son-in-law, Mr. M'Lachlan, and Mr. Boyd. From first to last they were most brutally treated. The execution was a sad spectacle. The prisoners, on being taken out of jail, grasped one another's hands. They were placed in a row and shot down one by one. Mr. Boyd received three bullets, but was still alive when put into the grave. The Boers then fired again, and all was over. It was