epulse at Ladybrand, there
still remained a fair number of broken and desperate men in the Free
State who held out among the difficult country of the east. A party of
these came across in the middle of September and endeavoured to cut the
railway near Brandfort. They were pursued and broken up by Macdonald,
who, much aided in his operations by the band of scouts which Lord Lovat
had brought with him from Scotland, took several prisoners and a large
number of wagons and of oxen. A party of these Boers attacked a small
post of sixteen Yeomanry under Lieutenant Slater at Bultfontein, but
were held at bay until relief came from Brandfort.

At two other points the Boer and British forces were in contact during
these operations. One was to the immediate north of Pretoria, where
Grobler's commando was faced by Paget's brigade. On August 18th the
Boers were forced with some loss out of Hornies Nek, which is ten miles
to the north of the capital. On the 22nd a more important skirmish took
place at Pienaar's River, in the same direction, between Baden-Powell's
men, who had come thither in pursuit of De Wet, and Grobler's band. The
advance guards of the two forces galloped into each other, and for once
Boer and Briton looked down the muzzles of each other's rifles. The
gallant Rhodesian Regiment, which had done such splendid service during
the war, suffered most heavily. Colonel Spreckley and four others were
killed, and six or seven wounded. The Boers were broken, however, and
fled, leaving twenty-five prisoners to the victors. Baden-Powell and
Paget pushed forwards as far as Nylstroom, but finding themselves
in wild and profitless country they returned towards Pretoria, and
established the British northern posts at a place called Warm Baths.
Here Paget commanded, while Baden-Powell shortly afterwards went down to
Cape Town to make arrangements for taking over the police force of the
conquered countries, and to receive the enthusiastic welcome of his
colonial fellow-countrymen. Plumer, with a small force operating from
Warm Baths, scattered a Boer commando on September 1st, capturing a few
prisoners and a considerable quantity of munitions of war. On the 5th
there was another skirmish in the same neighbourhood, during which the
enemy attacked a kopje held by a company of Munster Fusiliers, and was
driven off with loss. Many thousands of cattle were captured by the
British in this part of the field of operations, and were sent into