On the 9th of June, French, the magnificent, the indefatigable, came once more to the scene of his first triumphs in the days before the great _coup_ made by the relief of Kimberley. He took but a few weeks' holiday after his wholesale dispersal of Botha's hordes on the Swaziland border, and was again to the fore. Now, as Lieutenant-General Sir John French, K.C.B., he directed the operations of all the mobile columns extended over the face of Cape Colony. Widened movements were necessitated owing to the scattered state of the commandos which were now here, there, and everywhere picking up rebels, and needing each to be separately hunted by a detached column. On the 17th, Kruitzinger and Lotter were caught in the first instance by Colonel Munro, with Lovat's Scouts and Bethune's Mounted Infantry, and later by Crabbe, some twenty-five miles south-east of Maraisburg. Four Boers fell, twelve were wounded, twenty-five horses were left on the field, and fifty captured alive. Other captures included eight prisoners and a quantity of ammunition and saddles. It was reported that Kruitzinger's mongrel force at the time consisted of 276 whites, 10 armed natives, and 18 armed Hottentots, many of whom rode barebacked colts in the last stage of emaciation. Four days later sixty of the Midland Mounted Rifles, a Colonial corps which had done good work in the district, were surrounded by Kruitzinger's band and captured, after the loss of two officers and nine men killed, and ten men wounded. [Illustration: GENERAL BRUCE HAMILTON. Photo Russell & Sons, London.] Colonel Munro spent the remainder of June harassing raiders under Myburg, north of Jamestown, and others under Erasmus, east of Rayner Station. Colonel Scobell still chased Kruitzinger, and strove to drive him into the arms of Colonel Crabbe, who was engaged in hunting Van Reenan among the Bamboes Mountains. Colonels Crewe, Doran, and Wyndham combined in operations against Scheepers and Hugo, who were still dodging among the Camdeboo Mountains, while Captain Lund flew after errant gangs which had endeavoured to take Richmond and been repulsed by the gallantry of the North Stafford Militia, under Captain Hawkshaw, and by the Town Guard. More troops were also engaged in blocking the passes of the Drakensberg, through which Fouché had gone east towards Maclear in the fond hope of gathering recruits and fresh horses, and returning reinforced; but Colonel Dalgety, with Cape Mounted Rifles and East Griqualand Rifles, frustrated him. In the Calvinia district two gangs under Maritz and Conroy had made themselves troublesome for some weeks, but eventually Conroy, after being too warmly handled, particularly in an engagement which lasted five hours, when Captain Ramsbotham and Lieutenant Beresford of the Border Scouts tackled him near Kenhardt, fled north across the Orange. CHAPTER XI ORANGE RIVER COLONY, S.--MAJOR-GENERALS BRUCE-HAMILTON AND C. KNOX--JULY