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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Noble Woman, by Ernest Protheroe
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: A Noble Woman
+       The Life-Story of Edith Cavell
+
+Author: Ernest Protheroe
+
+Release Date: January 26, 2011 [EBook #35075]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A NOBLE WOMAN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Steven Gibbs, Richard J. Shiffer and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+  A NOBLE WOMAN
+
+  The Life-Story of
+  EDITH CAVELL
+
+  By
+  ERNEST PROTHEROE
+  Author of 'In Empire's Cause.' &c., &c.
+
+  'I will give thee a crown of life.'
+
+  London
+  THE EPWORTH PRESS
+  J. ALFRED SHARP
+
+
+  _First Edition, January, 1916_
+  _Second Edition, September, 1916_
+  _Third Edition, January, 1918_
+  _Fourth Edition, May, 1918_
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+  CHAP.                                             PAGE
+
+     I. INTRODUCTION                                   7
+
+    II. THE HEEL OF THE OPPRESSOR                     17
+
+   III. THE ARREST                                    29
+
+    IV. SPINNING THE TOILS                            37
+
+     V. THE SECRET TRIAL                              44
+
+    VI. THE FIGHT FOR A LIFE                          52
+
+   VII. THE BLOOD OF THE MARTYR                       63
+
+  VIII. IN MEMORIAM                                   73
+
+    IX. BRITISH OFFICIAL REPROBATION                  89
+
+     X. GERMANY'S CYNICAL DEFENCE                     99
+
+    XI. JUSTICE AND SAVAGERY CONTRASTED              108
+
+   XII. PULPIT AND PEN UNITE IN DENUNCIATION         114
+
+  XIII. THE LASH OF THE WORLD'S PRESS                128
+
+   XIV. AMERICA'S VERDICT                            159
+
+    XV. CONCLUSION                                   167
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+Edith Louisa Cavell was born in 1866 at the country rectory of
+Swardeston, near Norwich, of which parish her father, the Rev. Frederick
+Cavell, was rector for forty years. In that pleasant sunny house the
+little girl passed her early days in uneventful happiness, for
+Swardeston had few interests apart from the obscurities of its own rural
+retirement.
+
+The rector, who was a kindly man at heart, but firm to the point of
+sternness where his duty was concerned, ruled his home with evangelical
+strictness. His daughter Edith was a thoughtful child; and her
+unfailing consideration for others and her concern for their welfare
+caused her to be beloved by everybody. But the child's innate gentleness
+was tinged with a sense of duty remarkable in one of her years, which
+characteristic was the undoubted outcome of her father's precept and
+example.
+
+Edith Cavell's education was as thorough as her parents could contrive;
+and, apart from mere scholarship, her outlook was widened by being sent
+to a school at Brussels.
+
+When the Rev. Frederick Cavell died, the family removed from Swardeston
+to Norwich, and Edith decided to adopt the profession of nursing the
+sick poor. To that end on September 3, 1895, she entered the London
+Hospital as a probationer, and remained in that great institution for
+nearly five years. From the first, by her unselfish devotion to duty she
+endeared herself to her colleagues and patients alike. Part of the time
+she was staff nurse in the 'Mellish' Ward; and when the authorities
+sent her to Maidstone at the great outbreak of typhoid in that town, she
+did excellent work.
+
+Later, Miss Cavell was appointed to the post of night superintendent at
+St. Pancras Infirmary, where she remained for three years; then she
+migrated to Shoreditch Infirmary to act as assistant superintendent. As
+evidence of her more than ordinarily wide experience, it should be
+stated that for a time she worked at Fountain Hospital, Lower Tooting,
+under the Metropolitan Asylums Board; and for nine months she acted
+temporarily as matron of the Ashton New Road District Home, Manchester.
+
+In all these varied spheres of activity Nurse Cavell proved herself not
+only a capable nurse, but she became a clever, painstaking teacher, able
+to illustrate her eloquent lectures by means of her own facile and
+useful diagrams. Many nurses acknowledge their indebtedness to her lucid
+teaching, and are proud to claim their one-time association with one
+whose devotion and energy made her an ornament of a noble profession.
+
+The sense of duty, which in the child was indicated so plainly, in after
+years developed into almost a religion. Every one with whom Miss Cavell
+came in contact speedily understood that she placed duty before either
+friendship or personal comfort. Her hospital training had taught her the
+value of discipline, and she would never tolerate inefficiency, or any
+tendency towards slackness, in her subordinates. As a surgical nurse her
+skill was remarkable; but her undoubted _forte_ was the power of
+organization, which is almost rare compared to mere cleverness in the
+technical details of nursing.
+
+Her absorption in her calling and her outwardly stern and reserved
+demeanour sometimes caused Nurse Cavell to be misunderstood; but those
+who were fortunate enough to serve under her quickly came to learn to
+admire her, equally as a nurse and a kind woman. Her expressive eyes
+were an index to her overflowing sympathy; and her fellow nurses found
+themselves impelled to take their troubles and difficulties to her, sure
+of a patient hearing and tactful and sympathetic advice.
+
+In 1906 Miss Cavell was offered and accepted the position of matron of a
+surgical and medical home in Brussels, which had been founded by
+Monsieur de Page. This enlightened and enthusiastic Belgian doctor was
+impressed by the need of a better knowledge of hygiene and aseptic
+methods, of which through no fault of their own the nursing sisters in
+Belgium were generally ignorant.
+
+Nurse Cavell's new post was one that called for the utmost discretion,
+for she was an Englishwoman and a Protestant, engaging in work which
+hitherto was practically a monopoly of the Roman Catholic religious
+sisterhood. But even inborn prejudice, and in some cases positive
+enmity, could not long hold out against Miss Cavell's professional
+skill, backed up by her charm of manner; and in quite a short time she
+was as popular with the Belgian staff and patients as had always proved
+to be the case in her English experience.
+
+The establishment of a training school for nurses was a bold experiment,
+for Belgian women of good birth and education were accustomed to look
+upon earning their own living as a loss of caste.
+
+The English nurse was fully aware of the difficulties with which she had
+to contend, and resolutely set herself to combat them. Soon she had five
+pupils, who commenced their work on recognized lines. Their uniform
+consisted of blue cotton dresses, high white aprons with white linen
+sleeves to cover the forearm, which was bare beneath, 'Sister Dora' caps
+without strings, and white collars. 'The contrast,' wrote Miss Cavell to
+the _Nursing Mirror_, 'the probationers present to the nuns in their
+heavy stuff robes, and the lay nurses in their grimy apparel, is the
+contrast of the unhygienic past with the enlightened present. These
+Belgian probationers in three years' time will look back on the first
+days of trial with wonder.'
+
+By April, 1908, the probationers had increased to thirteen; and by 1912
+the number was thirty-two. Some of the members of the staff were English
+nurses who had worked in the London Hospital or the Shoreditch
+Infirmary. They not only assisted in training the probationers, but also
+attended the private patients in the Nursing Home which was attached to
+the school.
+
+Miss Cavell's school met with the warm approval of the Queen of the
+Belgians, who was quick to realize the value of trained nursing in
+Brussels. When Queen Elizabeth broke her arm a few years ago she did not
+hesitate to have it attended to by the nurses at the Home. Her Majesty's
+action was an exceedingly valuable tribute to the institution and the
+Englishwoman at its head. It gave public opinion a lead that caused the
+School and Home to be viewed favourably, where, perhaps, hitherto the
+new departure had been deprecated, if only because it was considered to
+be an unnecessary rival of the nuns and lay nurses, who worked under
+religious vows.
+
+The Queen came to hold a very sincere regard for Miss Cavell, and it is
+certain that the feeling was reciprocated. Little did the royal patient
+and the English nurse then imagine that within but a few short years
+they would figure together in adversity, in their respective spheres, as
+two of the most pathetic heroines in modern history.
+
+Quiet and unassuming, yet determined and courageous, Nurse Cavell
+continued her good work, which was bound to have a marked effect on the
+future of the Belgian nursing profession. She herself declared that 'the
+spread of light and knowledge is bound to follow in years to come. The
+nurses will not only teach, as none others have the opportunity of
+doing, the laws of health and the prevention and healing of disease;
+they will show their countrywomen that education and position do not
+constitute a bar to an independent life; they are rather a good and
+solid foundation on which to build a career which demands the best and
+highest qualities that womanhood can offer.'
+
+In acting as directress of three hospitals, Miss Cavell found full scope
+even for her unusual organizing capabilities. In addition to her arduous
+lectures throughout the day, she gave four lectures to the doctors and
+two to the nurses every week. She always attended at the
+operating-theatre herself. One of her greatest pleasures was the
+children's ward, decorated in blue and white after her own design; she
+made a special point of visiting the little inmates every evening. The
+better class of Belgians paid for the services of the private staff of
+nurses, but the call of the poor never went unheeded.
+
+Although Miss Cavell was intensely happy in her work in Brussels, she
+always looked forward with positive joy to visiting her aged mother,
+with whom she spent every possible holiday in England. In the summer of
+1914 mother and daughter were enjoying one of these affectionate
+reunions.
+
+Suddenly the great war-cloud burst. Edith Cavell was in her mother's
+garden weeding a bed of heartsease when she heard the news. She needed
+no heart-searching to decide where her duty lay; and, without
+hesitation, she returned hotfoot to Belgium, where she had an intuition
+that she would be wanted.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+THE HEEL OF THE OPPRESSOR
+
+
+When Germany had disclosed her infamous designs against the neutrality
+of Belgium, followed by her declaration of war against France, succeeded
+in a few hours by the entry of Great Britain into the fray, Miss
+Cavell's intuition of trouble became an absolute and appalling fact,
+with the positive certainty that war's ghastly harvest would mean work
+for nurses in Brussels.
+
+Forthwith the Berkendael Medical Institute became a Red Cross Hospital,
+of which Miss Cavell was _directrice_, with a number of English and
+Belgian nurses under her charge. Others of her training staff and some
+of the school probationers were in a board school, which had been
+rapidly converted into another hospital. Some of the nurses of the
+Training Institute were of German nationality, and these sorrowfully
+made a hasty departure for the Dutch frontier, carrying only hand
+luggage, which was all that they were allowed to take. Miss Cavell was
+sorry to have to send them away, but they would have been in a most
+invidious position if they had remained in an enemy capital towards
+which the German army was ruthlessly hacking its way.
+
+Although there was every indication of the extreme danger of Belgium,
+none could foresee the inexpressible agony that awaited her. How utterly
+Miss Cavell herself failed to realize the impending doom of the heroic
+little nation was shown in her letter of August 12, 1914, which she
+addressed to the Editor of _The Times_:
+
+     'Sir,
+
+     'I notice that there is a big movement on for the establishment of
+     Red Cross Hospitals in England. In the natural course of things
+     these will get almost exclusively naval men, whereas the army
+     wounded will have to be dealt with on the Continent, and, as far as
+     can be seen at present, mainly at Brussels.
+
+     'Our institution, comprising a large staff of English nurses, is
+     prepared to deal with several hundreds, and the number is being
+     increased day by day. May I beg, on behalf of my institution, for
+     subscriptions from the British public, which may be forwarded with
+     mention of the special purpose, to H.B.M.'s Consul at Brussels?
+
+     'Thanking you in anticipation, I am yours obediently,
+
+                                'E. CAVELL,
+                    '_Directrice_ of the Berkendael Medical
+                                    Institute, Brussels.
+
+     'Ambulance 53,
+      'Rue de la Culture, 149, Bruxelles,
+        'August 12, 1914.'
+
+Probably Miss Cavell learned later that the big movement in England to
+which she referred not only provided for our wounded soldiers from
+France and Belgium, but also distant Gallipoli, when that region became
+embroiled in the almost world-wide War.
+
+Events moved with startling rapidity. It was on August 4 that the German
+troops commenced to swarm across the Belgian frontier. Liège was
+attacked with a fury and violence that fortresses hitherto considered
+practically impregnable could not withstand. Only eight days after the
+dispatch of her letter to _The Times_ the heroic English nurse witnessed
+the entry of 20,000 Germans into Brussels.
+
+'News came,' she wrote to the _Nursing Mirror_, 'that the Belgians, worn
+out and weary, were unable to hold back the oncoming host.... In the
+evening (August 20) came word that the enemy were at the gates. At
+midnight bugles were blowing, summoning the civic guard to lay down
+their arms and leave the city.... As we went to bed our only consolation
+was that in God's good time right and justice must prevail.'
+
+Although Nurse Cavell was an Englishwoman, and her sympathies were
+claimed for the people within whose gates she had laboured for eight
+years, her great heart could feel compassion for the physical sufferings
+of the invaders, for the article continued: 'Many more troops came
+through. From our road we could see the long procession, and when the
+halt was called at midday some were too weary to eat, and slept on the
+pavement in the street. We were divided between pity for these poor
+fellows, far from their country and their people, suffering the
+weariness and fatigue of an arduous campaign, and hate of a cruel and
+vindictive foe bringing ruin and desolation to a prosperous and peaceful
+land.'
+
+From that date Nurse Cavell was cut off from the outside world.
+Enveloped in the fog of war, nothing was heard of her for eight months,
+although she had arranged to act as special correspondent to the
+_Nursing Mirror_. Not until the month of April was another and last
+communication received. It was dated March 29, 1915, but was not
+delivered in London until seventeen days later, when it came to hand in
+a dilapidated condition and without any outward sign that it had
+undergone inspection by the Censor. The article cannot be quoted at full
+length, but a few paragraphs of it vividly depict the conditions of life
+under the iron heel of a relentless conqueror:
+
+'From the day of the occupation till now we have been cut off from the
+world outside. Newspapers were first censored, then suppressed, and are
+now printed under German auspices; all coming from abroad were for a
+time forbidden, and now none are allowed from England....
+
+'The once busy and bustling streets are very quiet and silent; so are
+the people who were so gay and communicative in the summer. No one
+speaks to his neighbour in the tram, for he may be a spy. Besides, what
+news is there to tell, and who has the heart to gossip?
+
+'I am but a looker-on after all, for it is not my country whose soil is
+desecrated and whose sacred places are laid waste. I can only feel the
+deep and tender pity of the friend within the gates, and observe with
+sympathy and admiration the high courage and self-control of a people
+enduring a long and terrible agony.'
+
+Edith Cavell had anticipated that there would be work for her in
+Brussels. She found it in abundance, first in nursing wounded Belgians,
+succeeded by an influx of suffering Germans, for the new authorities
+allowed her to continue her work; and in due course numbers of English
+and French soldiers came under her ministering care. And be it noted
+that to be wounded was a sure passport to the great heart of the English
+nurse. Even the injured invaders were tended with impartial care, in
+accordance with the great tenet of the Red Cross nursing creed, that
+suffering humanity shall know no distinctions, whether friend or foe,
+their necessities calling for the same single-minded devotion.
+
+Miss Bertha Bennet Burleigh relates that she spent a pleasant half-hour
+with Miss Cavell, whom she met by chance shortly after the German
+occupation. In conversation the lady journalist learned that the nurses
+in the various nursing institutions had been requested to give an
+undertaking that they would also act as guards of the wounded. Miss
+Cavell said, 'We are prepared to do all we can to help them to recover
+from their wounds, but to be their jailers, never!' A German general
+smote the table with his clenched fist when the nurse gave her emphatic
+reply, but he could not cow her indomitable will. 'He looked,' Sister
+Edith afterwards told one of her colleagues, 'as if he would like to
+shoot me dead.' From that day onwards the German authorities commenced
+to deal harshly with the British Red Cross nurses who were in their
+power.
+
+There is evidence available to prove that many Germans had occasion to
+bless the good offices of Nurse Cavell; and from all who passed through
+her hands she won the most profound esteem, which in itself was a cause
+of offence to the German authorities, who knew that they themselves were
+just as cordially detested.
+
+But Edith Cavell's greatest offence lay in the fact that she was an
+Englishwoman, heroic daughter of the race that no specious promise or
+bribe could tempt from the path of honour; that could not view its
+treaty signature as a 'scrap of paper,' whose 'contemptible little army'
+had played a dramatic part in hurling back the Germans when Paris was
+literally in their mailed grasp; and that had succeeded in locking the
+once weak line of the Allies, which now forbade approach to the Channel
+ports of France from which a royal bully had proposed to attack the
+shores of England.
+
+Baron von Bissing had been appointed Governor-General of Belgium, and
+forthwith he had commenced to terrorize the inhabitants. Brussels was
+plastered with proclamations calculated to make life scarcely worth
+living. One of them in particular forbade any person to assist subjects
+of countries at war with Germany to leave Belgium.
+
+It is not quite certain whether Baron von Bissing ever came in personal
+contact with Miss Cavell, but it is positive that she became suspect to
+some of his emissaries, who promptly set about weaving a web for her
+undoing. It did not take long for clever German spies to ascertain that
+the English nurse had supplied British, French, and Belgian refugees
+with food, clothing, and money, and had connived, if not actually
+assisted, in their escape across the frontier into Holland.
+
+No purpose would be served by attempting to deny that there was in
+existence a Band of Mercy whose object it was to smuggle fugitives out
+of Belgium. The members of this secret organization included Prince
+Reginald and Princess Marie de Croy of Belignies, the Comtesse de
+Belleville, a French abbé, Mademoiselle Thulier, M. Philippe Bancq, a
+Belgian architect, and others. It may be stated that the Princess is
+partly of English extraction, and her arrest caused the death of her
+English grandmother as a result of shock and subsequent illness. The
+Comtesse de Belleville belongs to the French nobility through her
+father, while her mother, the Vicomtesse d'Hendecourt, is Belgian. She
+spent much of her time in Belgium, devoting herself largely to
+charitable work, and when war broke out she came to the aid of her
+distressed compatriots.
+
+Nurse Cavell undoubtedly participated in these simple acts of humanity
+which the Germans construed into 'crimes.' She permitted her hospital to
+be used in the chain of rest-houses by means of which fugitives escaped
+detection and capture, as they were passed from point to point towards
+their golden enfranchisement across the Dutch frontier. Admittedly Miss
+Cavell did wrong in setting the German military law at defiance, but it
+was the policy of German 'frightfulness' that was her justification.
+The enemy army violated their own treaty obligations, and had plundered,
+burnt, slaughtered, and ravished a helpless people in a manner that had
+not been conceivable in this twentieth century. Edith Cavell's contact
+with wounded soldiers had afforded her first-hand information concerning
+the brutal atrocities of which the invaders were guilty, and doubtless
+gave rise to a passionate desire to enable any wounded British
+compatriot, Belgian or French friend, to escape from the common peril.
+
+For nearly a whole year Nurse Cavell continued her work, one supreme and
+unbroken test of the heroic spirit with which she was imbued. It was
+wonderful that her God-given befriending of refugees should have escaped
+detection so long; but at length the German Administration in Belgium
+verified some of the escapes of men from their iron thrall, and Edith
+Cavell was wrenched from her hospital by soldiers and put in prison.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+THE ARREST
+
+
+On the evening of August 5 Nurse Cavell was engaged in binding lint on
+the wound of one of the invaders, when a peremptory knock on the door
+resounded through the quiet hospital. Not waiting for admission, half a
+dozen German soldiers burst open the door with the butt-ends of their
+rifles and entered the ward. Without preamble the corporal in charge
+seized Miss Cavell roughly, and commenced to drag her away from his
+wounded compatriot to whom she ministered.
+
+The Englishwoman did not quail before this uncouth representative of
+'Kultur,' but with calmness and dignity demanded to know the reason of
+the brutal exhibition of authority. The bullying corporal's instructions
+evidently included nothing in the way of explanation. He considered a
+cuff to be the best means of meeting the situation; and forthwith he
+marched her through the gathering gloom to the military prison of St.
+Gilles.
+
+The German authorities made no public announcement of the arrest of the
+English nurse or any of her alleged associates. In all probability at
+first they maintained secrecy in the hope of being able to incriminate
+other suspects, and thus make a clean sweep of an agency that had
+attempted to lift by the fraction of an inch the iron heel that was
+grinding out the life of suffering Belgium.
+
+Three weeks elapsed before Edith Cavell's relatives in England heard of
+her arrest from a chance traveller who had come to England from Belgium.
+The news was communicated to the Foreign Office, and on August 26 Sir
+Edward Grey requested Mr. Page, the United States Ambassador in London,
+to make inquiry of the United States Minister at Brussels whether the
+arrest of Miss Cavell was an actual fact, and, if so, the reason
+assigned for it.
+
+In the interval the German authorities were hard at work in securing
+evidence, not merely to justify the arrest, but to provide plausible
+excuse for the execution of the prisoner, which later sinister mockeries
+of justice proved to have been a foregone conclusion from the
+commencement.
+
+It is believed that not only did German spies ransack Belgium for
+evidence, but some even visited Norwich to interrogate Miss Cavell's
+friends, to trace her movements, and, if possible, to intercept her
+correspondence. But even then the testimony against the prisoner
+aggregated but a sorry charge of presenting a great-coat to an ill-clad
+man, a glass of water to a thirsty pilgrim, and small coins to persons
+who were being hunted for their lives. There was a fear that these
+'crimes' would be insufficient to secure a conviction on a capital
+charge. There was no time to ferret out any real damning testimony, and
+so the jailers of the English nurse fell back upon the method of
+attempting to convict her out of her own mouth.
+
+It requires to be accentuated that Miss Cavell, apart from her
+profession, was a well-read woman. She knew more than a little of modern
+German philosophy, and had come to believe that the triumph of
+Prussianism would result in the collapse of Christianity. Once, when she
+was expressing some such view, a friend inquired whether it was prudent.
+'Prudent?' she exclaimed, with reproach in her eyes. 'In times like
+these, when terror makes might seem right, there is a higher duty than
+prudence.' And as she was a woman who would not count the cost of
+clinging to her standards, she was little likely to hide her opinions
+when confronted by the enemy.
+
+It is a prime feature of English justice that the veriest felon need not
+incriminate himself; nay, he is specifically warned that any statement
+he makes may be used as evidence against him. Practically he is reminded
+of the old legal axiom that a man who is his own lawyer has a fool for a
+client, with the consequent advisability to bridle his tongue against
+any unwise admission. The conception of German justice in Brussels was
+the converse, and the accusers of the Red Cross representative of a
+hated race deliberately laid snares for the extortion of the evidence
+they required.
+
+The course of procedure was terribly reminiscent of the methods of the
+old Spanish Inquisition. True, Miss Cavell was not subjected to actual
+physical torture, but the mental strain was calculated to break down
+anything in the nature of obstinacy. With diabolical cunning she was cut
+off from communication with the world outside the jail as completely as
+if she were dead, lest any whisper of warning to guard her tongue might
+reach her from outside; and often she had to face interrogation by
+brutal and implacable enemies, who sought not to do her justice, but
+only to assure her condemnation.
+
+It is a comfort to believe that Miss Cavell's keen perception and her
+knowledge of German unscrupulousness enabled her to realize the
+inevitable end that awaited her, thus saving her from carking
+speculation that might have unhinged her reason. With Christian
+fortitude she grasped the inestimable boon of resignation, fully assured
+that 'death is the liberator of him whom freedom cannot release, and the
+comforter of him whom time cannot console.'
+
+Really the secrecy of her arrest and imprisonment and the precautions
+taken for her utter isolation were scarcely worth the trouble the crafty
+conspirators had taken, for Nurse Cavell took up a simple and heroic
+position that greatly simplified matters from the German standpoint. She
+was not an inexperienced girl, she was a noble woman of clever
+intellect, and had never been in doubt of the penalty she might incur by
+succouring compatriots and friends in distress in defiance of the
+German military code.
+
+Inspired in her perilous work by the dictates of purest humanity, which
+has been the glory of women of all nations in all ages, she boldly
+avowed to her accusers that she had nothing to conceal. The last thing
+to have entered her mind would have been to attempt to mitigate her
+offence by lying; she would not even palter with disingenuousness. Not
+only did she admit the charges against her, but she related incidents
+about which her inquisitors had but the most fragmentary particulars, or
+even only flimsy suspicions. She did not hesitate to supply dates and
+details for which the spies had sought in vain.
+
+It is impossible to tell when Miss Cavell first became aware that a
+considerable number of her friends were under arrest. In any case during
+her long incarceration in prison and the numerous interrogations she had
+to undergo in order to elicit the admissions to construct the case
+against her, she scrupulously avoided the implication of other persons.
+No brutality, no wheedling, no bribe, could ever have made that brave
+soul disloyal by word or deed to any of her associates.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+SPINNING THE TOILS
+
+
+The Germans have asserted that Edith Cavell's arrest, trial, and
+punishment were necessary as a warning, especially to others of her sex,
+that enterprises conducing to the disadvantage of their army were
+punishable with death. It is sufficient commentary upon this claim to
+remember that Baron von Bissing caused the English nurse to be arrested
+in secret and tried _in camera_, when publicity was a prime necessity if
+her case was to act as a warning to others.
+
+The arrest took place on August 5, but the fact was carefully
+concealed--and the significant reason is not far to seek. Germany had
+agreed that all British civil subjects in Belgium, so long as the
+German army occupied the country, were under the protection of the
+United States Minister. Baron von Bissing's paramount duty was to notify
+Miss Cavell's arrest without delay to Mr. Brand Whitlock, the American
+Minister in Brussels.
+
+This obviously honourable course found no place in von Bissing's
+villanous scheme of vengeance. If he could avoid it, he had no intention
+of allowing his English prisoner the benefit of neutral protection. But
+news of the arrest did in due course reach the American Legation, and
+Mr. Whitlock at once commenced to make inquiries, in which he was
+assisted by Mr. Hugh Gibson, his secretary, and Maitre G. de Leval, a
+Belgian advocate and legal adviser to the Legation.
+
+On August 31 Mr. Whitlock wrote to Baron von der Lancken, the German
+Political Minister in Brussels, asking whether it was true that Miss
+Edith Cavell had been arrested. If so, the reasons for the arrest were
+requested, and the German judicial authorities were asked to allow M.
+de Leval to interview the prisoner and make arrangements for her
+defence.
+
+Baron von der Lancken having vouchsafed no answer to the American
+Minister, Mr. Whitlock reiterated his request on September 10, which
+elicited a reply that was delivered on the 21st. It was ominously
+suggestive that the Baron had dated his letter September 12, obviously a
+crafty subterfuge to palliate the delay, which was all part and parcel
+of a treacherous intention to deceive those who had the temerity to
+desire that justice be done to Nurse Cavell.
+
+The Baron's letter stated that the accused admitted that she had
+facilitated the departure from Belgium of British, French, and Belgians
+of military age. Her defence was in the hands of Advocate Braun, who was
+in touch with the competent German authorities. The missive ended with
+the statement that for M. de Leval to be permitted to visit Miss Cavell,
+so long as she was in solitary confinement, would be contrary to the
+principles of the Department of the Governor-General.
+
+Promptly the American Legation wrote to M. Braun, requesting him to
+attend at the Legation in order that he might afford details of the
+accusation made against his client, and further to consort arrangements
+for her defence.
+
+Although time was now pressing, seven weeks having elapsed since the
+arrest, Braun wasted several more days before he put in an appearance at
+the Legation, which certainly indicated no energetic interest in the
+unfortunate prisoner. This casual attitude became understandable as by
+degrees the German plot disclosed itself. It was amazing with what a web
+of deception the Department of the Governor-General considered it
+necessary to weave about one poor weak woman, evasions, chicanery, and
+callousness summing up a cold-blooded villany of purpose without
+parallel in the annals of any nation subscribing to the most elementary
+principles of humanity, leaving justice altogether out of the question.
+
+Braun's next tardy step was to inform the American Legation that 'owing
+to unforeseen circumstances' he was unable to act further on behalf of
+Miss Cavell, whose personal friends had besought his assistance; but he
+had arranged for M. Sadi Kirschen, another Belgian lawyer, to defend the
+prisoner.
+
+There was thus a fresh delay while M. de Leval got into communication
+with Kirschen, a meeting with whom provided but very cold comfort. The
+legal adviser to the American Legation was astounded to learn that the
+prisoner's new advocate was ignorant of the details of the charges
+against her; for the German military code did not permit him to see his
+client before the trial, and he was not allowed to inspect any documents
+in connexion with the case.
+
+When M. de Leval announced that he himself would attend the trial,
+Kirschen strongly deprecated any such course. He asserted that the
+judges would not approve of the presence of a neutral spectator, and
+they might show their annoyance by delivering a judgement more severe
+than otherwise would be the case. M. de Leval, not desiring to prejudice
+the prisoner in any way, did not persist in his intention to be present
+at the trial. He had to rely upon Kirschen's statement that the tribunal
+would act with fairness, and that a miscarriage of justice was a very
+remote possibility. Kirschen further explained that these trials of
+suspects generally developed so slowly that, as the charges against Miss
+Cavell were disclosed, he would be able to elaborate the best possible
+defence.
+
+In view of later events it is evident that Kirschen was but a cog in the
+wheel of German 'rightfulness'; but at the time there was nothing in his
+demeanour or his expressions of opinion to cause one to suspect his
+genuineness. But it goes without saying that if M. de Leval had evinced
+the utmost determination to attend the trial, the Department of the
+Governor-General would have found means to prevent the presence of an
+unbiased spectator of their clandestine and insincere method of
+'justice.'
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+THE SECRET TRIAL
+
+
+The trial of Edith Cavell took place behind an almost impenetrable veil
+of secrecy. A fortnight after the execution of the victim certain German
+newspapers printed an account that was mainly a brief for the
+prosecution, while the accused were put in as unfavourable a light as
+possible. Fortunately an eye-witness afterwards afforded M. de Leval
+additional details, by which we are enabled to picture the scene with
+tolerable certainty; and surely never since Joan of Arc faced the
+corrupt Bishop of Beauvais has the light of heaven looked down on a more
+merciless and brutal caricature of law and justice.
+
+The secret court-martial was held in the Brussels Senate House, where
+thirty-five persons were charged with similar offences. The judges'
+names were not made public. Of the accused, the principal were Edith
+Cavell and Princess Marie de Croy, the Comtesse de Belleville and
+Mademoiselle Thulier, and M. Philippe Bancq. Prince Reginald de Croy did
+not stand his trial, for the simple reason that the Germans had been
+unable to lay hands on him. Armed guards had escorted the prisoners to
+the court, where soldiers with fixed bayonets stood between them.
+
+The court-martial was not likely to be a long and tedious affair, for
+the prisoners had been questioned and cross-examined _ad nauseam_ long
+before this final stage, and in most cases the accused had signed
+depositions admitting their guilt.
+
+The outstanding figure among the prisoners was Miss Cavell, the typical
+Red Cross nurse, whom sick soldiers love and reverence, whose
+incomparable devotion to duty places her in the forefront of the
+world's womanhood. She appeared in the uniform in which she had been
+arrested: the white cap covering the back of the head; the stiff collar
+around the neck; starched bow beneath the chin; and on her arm the Red
+Cross, the badge of her merciful mission.
+
+Even in a British court of justice perfectly innocent people are
+overawed by their surroundings, causing them to be self-conscious,
+nervous, and distracted at a time when cool collectedness should be the
+first line of their defence. But Miss Cavell knew that she was arraigned
+before unjust judges, who lacked the virtues of charity, sincerity,
+humanity, and probity, without which the exercise of judgement is a
+mockery and a sham.
+
+Her clear and expressive eyes looked out of a countenance that two
+months of close confinement had made deathly white. She was of the stuff
+of which martyrs are made. For what amounted to no more than a series of
+acts of womanly compassion she had become the sport of dire misfortune;
+but 'misfortune is never mournful to the soul that accepts it; for such
+do always see that every cloud is an angel's face.' Edith Cavell
+fearlessly looked about the court, viewing with evident curiosity the
+row of malevolent-looking officers in gorgeous uniforms, who occupied
+the judges' bench under the black Prussian eagle that is now the emblem
+of a nation's degradation. Occasionally her delicate features were
+illumined with a commiserating smile to encourage those who shared her
+own imminent peril.
+
+The case for the prosecution was that the accused were the principals in
+an organization that assisted British, French, and Belgian soldiers to
+escape from Belgium. It was alleged that fugitives were first smuggled
+into Brussels, where they were hidden either in a convent or in Miss
+Cavell's hospital. Later, as opportunity offered, they were disguised
+and conducted in tram-cars out of the city, and handed over to guides
+who led the way by devious routes to the Dutch frontier.
+
+When Miss Cavell was called upon to plead, she mastered her physical
+weakness, and serenely faced her accusers. In gentle accents she
+asserted that to the best of her belief she had but served her country,
+and, so far as that was wrong, she was ready to take the blame. Calmly
+she contemplated her end; cheerfully she was willing to be the
+scapegoat, in the hope that some at least of her friends might escape
+the dread punishment that she perceived would be her fate.
+
+She was interrogated in German, which an interpreter translated into
+French, with which tongue she was perfectly familiar. She spoke without
+trembling, and exhibited a clear and acute mind. Often she added some
+greater precision to her previous depositions. Her answers were always
+direct and unhesitating. When the Military Prosecutor inquired why she
+had helped soldiers to go to England, the reply came promptly: 'If I had
+not done so they would have been shot. I thought I was only doing my
+duty in saving their lives.'
+
+'That may be true so far as British soldiers were concerned,' agreed the
+interlocutor, 'but it did not apply to young Belgians. Why did you help
+them to cross the frontier, when they would have been perfectly free and
+safe in staying here?'
+
+Miss Cavell treated this question with the silent contempt it deserved.
+She knew only too well what freedom and safety had been accorded to many
+Belgians of military age who had been found in their own desecrated
+fatherland.
+
+She not only admitted that she had assisted refugees to escape, but she
+acknowledged that she had received letters of thanks from those who had
+reached England in safety. This was a vital admission. German evidence
+alone could have charged her with an 'attempt' to commit the crime, but
+the letters of thanks conclusively proved that she had 'committed' the
+offence.
+
+Among the other prisoners, M. Philippe Bancq was equally fearless.
+Without a quaver he admitted that he had assisted young Belgians to
+escape and rejoin their army. 'As a good Belgian patriot,' said he, 'I
+am ready to lay down my life for my country.'
+
+The Military Prosecutor demanded that the death penalty be passed upon
+Nurse Cavell and eight other prisoners. Whether the Englishwoman's
+compassionate conduct that was her offence and her heroic bearing under
+trial made an impression on her judges, one cannot tell. Their apparent
+disagreement may only have been a theatrical adjunct to the tragedy
+which Baron von Bissing had staged with consummate care. It may have
+been that they lacked the moral courage to pronounce sentence in her
+presence. In any case, judgement was postponed. In an ordinary trial
+this respite would have given play to hope, the miserable man's god,
+which keeps the soul from sinking in despair.
+
+But hope could neither flatter nor deceive Edith Cavell as she was led
+back under escort to her cell to wait--to wait for the assured
+condemnation that her eyes of courage must have perceived at the end of
+the cul-de-sac of German infamy.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+THE FIGHT FOR A LIFE
+
+
+The trial had occupied two days, and had ended on Friday, October 8. M.
+Kirschen had promised to keep M. de Leval informed how the matter was
+proceeding. He duly notified the date of the trial; but in thorough
+keeping with what had gone before, during the two days' progress of the
+inquiry he made no sign. He did not disclose that the Military
+Prosecutor had asked for the death penalty; he maintained silence even
+when the sentence was promulgated. Thus he was a party to cutting off
+the unhappy prisoner from the only friends who could bring powerful
+influence to bear upon the authorities for a revision of the sentence.
+Kirschen not only did not communicate with M. de Leval, but he
+disappeared entirely after the trial.
+
+It is placed on record by one present in court that Kirschen pleaded
+well for his client, but it is doubtful if it were more than a formal
+plea for mercy for one who was prejudged and her fate already sealed.
+That Kirschen is believed to be an Austrian by birth, although a
+naturalized Belgian, doubtless explains much that for a time had
+mystified the officials of the American Legation. It makes one's gorge
+rise to think that while the German conspirators pretended to allow the
+prisoner a friendly advocate, he was in reality a hideous travesty, a
+hypocritical cat's-paw of the Department of the Governor-General.
+
+After the perpetration of the crime M. Kirschen informed a sceptical
+world that he was not of Austrian origin, but was born at Jassy, in
+Roumania. He also denied that he promised to inform the American
+Legation about the sentence, and, in fact, did not know until it was
+announced publicly. It need only be commented that M. de Leval's letters
+to his chief are in emphatic contradiction, and there is no doubt whose
+word is worthy of credence.
+
+Failing to find M. Kirschen or learn any news of him, on Sunday night M.
+de Leval went to see Baron von der Lancken. The Baron was out, and Mr.
+Conrad, a subordinate, was unable to give any information.
+
+On Monday morning M. de Leval was informed by Conrad that the American
+Legation would be made acquainted with the judgement immediately it was
+pronounced, at the same time volunteering the assurance that it need not
+be expected for 'a day or two.'
+
+M. de Leval did not propose to rely upon any German assurances, and,
+further, was bent upon learning some of the details of the trial. In
+view of M. Kirschen's continued silence, he called at the house of the
+advocate at 12.30, but was informed that he would not be at home until
+late in the afternoon. He therefore proceeded to the house of another
+lawyer, who had been interested in one of Miss Cavell's fellow
+prisoners, but failed also to find that gentleman. However, he called
+upon M. de Leval a few hours later, and reported that he had heard that
+judgement would be passed on Tuesday morning. He also said that he had
+good grounds for believing that the sentence of the court would be
+severe for all the prisoners.
+
+Meanwhile repeated telephonic inquiries were made by the American
+Legation at the Politische Abteilung (Political Department), and upon
+each occasion it was stated that sentence had not been pronounced; and
+this was the reply as late as 6.20, together with the renewed promise to
+afford the required information as soon as it came to hand. And so the
+day dragged on.
+
+Yet the death sentence had been passed at five o'clock in the afternoon,
+and the execution of Miss Cavell was fixed for the same night! Not until
+8.30 p.m. did the American Legation learn from a reliable outside
+source that sentence had been passed, and the execution would probably
+take place at two o'clock in the morning. Thus the American Minister was
+hoodwinked up to almost the last moment. The same fiendish mind that had
+engineered the secret arrest and the trial _in camera_ had deliberately
+jockeyed the Legation out of anything like the time required for taking
+the requisite steps to secure the deferring of the execution, pending an
+appeal in the highest quarters for clemency.
+
+At this critical juncture Mr. Brand Whitlock was ill in bed; but,
+nevertheless, with Mr. Hugh Wilson, he threw himself into the task of
+attempting to save Miss Cavell's life, although the brief time at their
+disposal afforded but a slender chance of success. In a letter already
+prepared for dispatch to Baron von der Lancken, it was pointed out that
+the condemned Englishwoman had been treated with more severity than had
+been the result in other similar cases, although it was only her own
+commendable straightforwardness that enabled the charges against her to
+be proved. It was urged that she had spent her life in alleviating the
+sufferings of others, and at the beginning of the War she had bestowed
+her care as freely on German soldiers as on others. Her career as a
+servant of humanity should inspire the greatest sympathy and call for
+pardon. A letter in identical terms was addressed to Baron von Bissing.
+
+Apart from what may be termed these strictly official communications,
+the Minister directed a touching personal appeal to Baron von der
+Lancken that was calculated to move the heart of a Bashi-Bazouk.
+
+     'My dear Baron,
+
+     'I am too ill to present my request in person, but I appeal to the
+     generosity of your heart to support it and save this unfortunate
+     woman from death. Have pity on her!
+
+                                   'Yours sincerely,
+                                     'BRAND WHITLOCK.'
+
+That this poignant intercession failed in its purpose is indubitable
+proof, if further testimony were necessary, that the Prussian model of
+manliness is utterly devoid of chivalry, and that blood-lust takes the
+place of the ordinary dictates of humanity.
+
+Forthwith Mr. Gibson and M. de Leval sought out the Marquis de
+Villalobar, the Spanish Ambassador, and together the anxious trio
+proceeded to the house of Baron von der Lancken. Not only was the Baron
+not at home, but no member of his staff was in attendance, which
+suggests even to the most charitable chronicler that the visit had been
+anticipated. An urgent message was sent after the Baron, with the result
+that he returned home a little after ten o'clock, and was shortly
+followed by two members of his staff.
+
+When the circumstances necessitating the visit were explained to Baron
+von der Lancken, he professed to disbelieve that the death sentence had
+been passed, and asserted that in any case there would be no execution
+that night, and that the matter would lose nothing by waiting until the
+morning. But the neutral diplomatists were too hot upon the trail of
+German trickery and prevarication to permit of the desired
+procrastination; they were ambassadors in mercy rather than mere
+politics, and they firmly insisted upon the Baron instituting immediate
+inquiries. He retired to engage in telephonic communication with the
+presiding judge of the court-martial, doubtless not to seek for
+information, but to condole with each other upon the disclosure of their
+cunning scheme to these pestering neutrals, whose interference they had
+exercised their ingenuity to avoid.
+
+Shortly the Baron returned and admitted to his visitors that their
+information was correct, whereupon Mr. Gibson presented the letters
+appealing for delay in execution of the sentence, and at the same time
+he verbally emphasized every conceivable point that might assist to gain
+even the most temporary respite; and in these representations the
+Spanish Minister lent all the support at his command.
+
+Baron von der Lancken informed them that in these matters the supreme
+authority was the Military Governor; that the Governor-General had no
+authority to intervene; and that appeal could be carried only to the
+Emperor, and only in the event of the Military Governor exercising his
+discretionary power to accept an appeal for clemency.
+
+Upon the urgent appeal of the neutral diplomatists Baron von der Lancken
+agreed to speak to the Military Governor on the telephone. He was absent
+half an hour, and upon his return stated that he had been to confer
+personally with the Military Governor, who declared that the sentence
+upon Miss Cavell was the result of 'mature deliberation,' and that the
+circumstances in her case rendered 'the infliction of the death penalty
+imperative.'
+
+The Baron's attitude was that of absolute finality, and in signification
+of the end of the interview he asked Mr. Gibson to take back the note
+which he had presented to him. This apparently simple request was
+typical of the subtleties of Teutonic diplomacy, which cynically
+repudiates its own 'scraps of paper,' and consequently cannot be
+expected to hold those of others in very high esteem. Astute as Baron
+von der Lancken may have imagined himself to be, his idea is patent to
+an ordinarily unsophisticated mind, which not unnaturally, albeit
+ungenerously, infers that at some time in the future the Baron may
+desire to deny that he had received the written appeal of the American
+Minister, which would be borne out by its absence from the official
+archives. He is welcome to any satisfaction that the preparation for
+mendacity may afford an atrophic conscience and a mental attitude that
+is foreign to honourable diplomacy.
+
+For an hour longer the visitors argued and pleaded, only to be informed
+very positively that 'even the Emperor himself could not intervene'; but
+even then Mr. Gibson and the Marquis de Villalobar continued to make
+fresh appeals for delay. Finally the Spanish Minister drew Baron von der
+Lancken aside in order to express some forcible opinions that he
+hesitated to say in the presence of the Baron's subordinates and M. de
+Leval, a Belgian subject; and in the meantime Mr. Gibson and M. de Leval
+argued desperately with the younger officers--but all in vain.
+
+Edith Cavell was doomed to death by that same tyranny that had
+consummated the horrors of Louvain, that had heaped up atrocity upon
+atrocity to appal all Christendom. As the bells of the city chimed the
+midnight hour the victims' friends returned in despair to the American
+Legation.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+THE BLOOD OF THE MARTYR
+
+
+At eleven o'clock that same night, while Mr. Gibson and the Marquis de
+Villalobar were expostulating with Baron von der Lancken, the Rev. H. S.
+T. Gahan, the British Chaplain in Brussels, entered the cell in which
+Nurse Cavell had spent the last ten weeks of her life.
+
+Even in that supreme hour when she was being hurried to the grave by her
+implacable foes, she knew no fear. She was calm and resigned. Upon her
+gentle lips was no execration of her enemies, but only sentiments that
+make us infinitely proud of her, that shall be repeated by generations
+yet unborn, that shall endure in our national affection and reverence as
+long as British tongues have speech and words have meaning.
+
+In his report to the American Legation Mr. Gahan said that Nurse
+Cavell's first words were concerned with a matter concerning herself
+personally, 'but the solemn asseveration which accompanied them was made
+expressly in the light of God and eternity.' In expressing the wish for
+all her friends to know that she willingly gave her life to her country,
+she said, 'I have no fear nor shrinking; I have seen death so often that
+it is not strange or fearful to me.' She further said, 'I thank God for
+this ten weeks' quiet before the end. Life has always been hurried and
+full of difficulty. This time of rest has been a great mercy. They have
+all been very kind to me here. But this I would say, standing as I do in
+view of God and eternity, I realize that patriotism is not enough. I
+must have no hatred or bitterness towards any one.'
+
+When the chaplain administered the Holy Communion, she received the
+gospel message of consolation with all her heart; and when he repeated
+the words of the hymn 'Abide with me,' Miss Cavell softly joined in the
+last verse:
+
+    Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes;
+    Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies;
+    Heaven's morning breaks, and earth's vain shadows flee;
+    In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.
+
+Afterwards the chaplain and Miss Cavell quietly conversed until the
+jailer intimated that the interview must end. She then gave him final
+parting messages for relatives and friends. 'She spoke of her soul's
+need at the moment, and she received the assurance of God's word as only
+the Christian can do'; and when he bade her 'good-bye' she smiled and
+said, 'We shall meet again.'
+
+Early in the morning Miss Cavell was led out to execution. As there is
+no official account of her last moments, we at first had to rely chiefly
+upon the report of the Amsterdam _Telegraaf_, a thoroughly reliable and
+influential journal; but later, additional details were available from
+various accredited sources. The _Telegraaf_ records that the soldiers of
+the shooting party were greatly impressed by the courage and fortitude
+of the nurse, and much distressed at their enforced participation in a
+dastardly crime. Each individual soldier purposely aimed high so that he
+might not have the murder on his conscience. The whole firing party thus
+being impelled by the same humane motive, the volley left the victim
+standing unharmed.
+
+Only in that dread moment did her physical strength refuse to respond
+further to her sublimely heroic spirit. She swooned and fell; and the
+officer in charge of the soldiers stepped forward and shot her through
+the head, close to the ear, as she lay mercifully unconscious of her
+surroundings.
+
+Whether it be true or not that the soldiers acted as described, one
+would like to believe it, if only because it would afford some
+satisfaction to think that the German rank and file can be stirred by
+humane impulses to which their superiors are strangers. The rough
+soldiers would appear as veritable angels compared to Baron von Bissing
+and von der Lancken, his companion in crime. These ruffians consigned
+themselves by their conduct to everlasting loathing and contempt; to
+satisfy their rabid hate of England they proved themselves worthy peers
+of Judge Jeffreys, Robespierre, Nana Sahib, and other unnatural
+monsters.
+
+Six weeks after the grim tragedy three of Miss Cavell's friends returned
+to England from Belgium, and several of their statements correct
+previous errors. One of these ladies saw Miss Cavell in prison a few
+days before the end, but by that time the secrecy and isolation from all
+advice had accomplished all that her jailers desired. The visitor says
+that during the interview Miss Cavell was quite herself, wonderfully
+calm, and preferred to talk on ordinary topics. Originally it was stated
+that the execution took place at 2 a.m. in the prison of St. Gilles, but
+Miss Wilkins, who took over the management of the hospital after Miss
+Cavell's arrest, was at the prison at five o'clock on the morning of the
+12th. She was just in time to see her friend being conducted to the
+motor-car in which she was to be driven to the Tir National, two miles
+out of Brussels, which was the selected place of execution. She walked
+firmly, and, from the expression of her face, she was serene and
+undisturbed.
+
+The German military chaplain was with her at the end, and afterwards
+gave her poor body Christian burial. He told Mr. Gahan that 'she was
+brave and bright to the last. She professed her Christian faith, and
+that she was glad to die for her country.' 'She died like a heroine.'
+
+But the German chaplain did not inform Mr. Gahan that, accustomed as he
+was to painful death scenes, the brutal end of the gentle victim so
+horrified him that he himself sank to the ground in a dead faint--a
+weakness that stands to the credit of his heart and calling.
+
+The Rev. H. S. T. Gahan was sent to Brussels by the Colonial and
+Continental Church Society only a few months before the outbreak of the
+War. He was imprisoned for a few days in November, 1914, but was
+released when the Americans represented that they required a clergyman.
+All other British men were deported, but many British women and children
+remain in Brussels. Many of those who have contrived to escape from the
+stricken capital testify to the help and kindness and sympathy of the
+British chaplain.
+
+It has been asserted that by her own request Miss Cavell was permitted
+to face her executioners with unbandaged eyes and unbound hands. But
+more than that, according to later information, the Germans, with one of
+their acute refinements of cruelty, allowed her to witness the execution
+of M. Bancq, and it was this sight, more than fear of her own end, that
+caused her to collapse.
+
+The only announcement of Miss Cavell's death received by her friends and
+pupils was through a poster displayed on the walls of Brussels baldly
+announcing that the execution had taken place; and letters which were
+addressed to them the day before she died were not delivered until a
+month afterwards.
+
+The body of the martyr was buried by her enemies near the prison of St.
+Gilles. Mr. Whitlock, on behalf of the First President of the Brussels
+Court of Appeals and President of the Belgian School of Certificated
+Nurses, asked Baron von der Lancken for the body of Miss Cavell, its
+directress. It was undertaken, in the removal of the body and its burial
+in the Brussels district, to conform to all the regulations of the
+German authorities. Mr. Whitlock remarked that he felt sure that His
+Excellency would make no objection to the request, and that the
+institution to which Miss Cavell had generously devoted a part of her
+life would be permitted to perform a pious duty. Baron von der Lancken
+did not send a written reply, but called upon Mr. Gibson in person. He
+stated that under the regulations governing such cases it was
+impossible to exhume the body without written permission from the
+Minister of War in Berlin. Thus the Germans took the opportunity of
+crowning their foul deed with the final dishonour of a refusal of even
+such a last pitiful request.
+
+Really it is immaterial where Edith Cavell's body may be laid to rest,
+although sentiment may demand its ultimate recovery. Her memory will
+lack nothing. It is enshrined in glowing effulgence in the hearts of
+Britons and our Allies for all time.
+
+Although our story is the record of Edith Cavell, we can spare a thought
+for her heroic companions. M. Philippe Bancq declared his willingness to
+die for his country, and the Germans took him at his word. Princess
+Marie de Croy was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment; but the Comtesse
+de Belleville and Mademoiselle Thulier were condemned to death. Upon
+strong representations made by the King of Spain and the Pope, however,
+the German Emperor hastened to pardon these two ladies, because he was
+aware of the universal horror caused by the deliberate political murder
+of Miss Cavell. Von Bissing, too, evidently was warned by the Kaiser to
+moderate his bloodthirstiness, as evidenced by a promise of their lives
+to all British and French soldiers still hidden in Belgium if they
+surrendered without delay. Verily, it was speedily proved that Nurse
+Cavell had died that others might live--and it is not always the case
+that even the greatest sacrifices bear so speedy a fruit.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+IN MEMORIAM
+
+
+It is almost impossible to express how deeply the heart of the nation
+was stirred by the crowning deed of infamy signalized in the tyrannous
+execution of Edith Cavell; and all classes, from the highest to the
+lowest, were desirous of testifying their admiration of one whose
+devotion to duty and consecrated death will ever be an inspiration to
+our race.
+
+The following message was dispatched from the King and Queen to Mrs.
+Cavell, the stricken mother of the dead heroine:
+
+                                        'BUCKINGHAM PALACE,
+                                            '_October 23, 1915_.
+
+     'Dear Madam,--By command of the King and Queen I write to assure
+     you that the hearts of their Majesties go out to you in your
+     bitter sorrow, and to express their horror at the appalling deed
+     which has robbed you of your child. Men and women throughout the
+     civilized world, while sympathizing with you, are moved with
+     admiration and awe at her faith and courage in death.
+
+     'Believe me, dear Madam, yours very truly,
+
+                                             'STAMFORDHAM.'
+
+Queen Alexandra's letter, through the medium of the Rector of
+Sandringham, ran as follows:
+
+     'I am commanded by Her Majesty Queen Alexandra to write and say how
+     deeply Her Majesty feels for you in the sad and tragic death of
+     your daughter. Her Majesty views the unheard-of act with the utmost
+     abhorrence; no words of mine are in any way adequate to express the
+     deep feelings of Her Majesty as she spoke to me of Miss Cavell's
+     death. Her Majesty's first thought was of you, and I was to tell
+     you how deeply, very deeply, Her Majesty sympathizes with you.
+     "Her poor, poor mother. I go on thinking of her," were Her
+     Majesty's words. The women of England are bearing the greatest
+     burden of this terrible War, but by all the name of Miss Cavell
+     will be held in the highest honour and respect. We shall always
+     remember that she never once failed England in her hour of need.
+     "May God bless and comfort you!" is the prayer of Her Majesty.'
+
+Naturally the tragic death of their heroic sister went like a
+trumpet-blast through the ranks of the nursing profession, and the
+following letter of sympathy addressed to Mrs. Cavell from the President
+and Council of the Royal British Nurses' Association was signed by
+Princess Christian herself:
+
+     'We, the President and Council of the Royal British Nurses'
+     Association, desire to express the warm and heartfelt sympathy of
+     the whole Association with you in the bereavement which has fallen
+     on you in such tragic circumstances. Your daughter's heroic death
+     is one which will always remain a lasting memorial to devotion,
+     courage, and self-sacrifice, and her name will ever be remembered
+     among those heroes who have laid down their lives for their
+     country.'
+
+Of the condolences from abroad a few examples must suffice. M. Cambon,
+the French Ambassador in London, received from the Committee of Foreign
+Affairs of the Chamber of Deputies the following telegram for
+transmission to the House of Commons:
+
+     'The Chairman and Members of the Committee of Foreign Affairs of
+     the Chamber of Deputies, deeply moved by the tragic fate of Miss
+     Cavell, desire to offer to the members of the House of Commons the
+     expression of the respect and admiration which they feel for the
+     noble heroine of British patriotism, and beg the House of Commons
+     to accept, on behalf of themselves and of their colleagues, their
+     message of grief and indignation.'
+
+Acting under the instructions of his Government, the Belgian Minister
+telegraphed to Mrs. Cavell:
+
+     'The Belgian Government shares with emotion and respect in your
+     grief. Our entire population to-day associates in a universal
+     sentiment of admiration and gratitude the name of Miss Cavell with
+     that of the many Belgian women who have already fallen martyrs to
+     German barbarism, and from whose innocent blood will arise new
+     heroism for the defence of civilization.'
+
+
+A GREAT MEMORIAL SERVICE.
+
+London in particular, and the nation in general, laid its wreath of
+prayer around the bier of Edith Cavell in a great memorial service held
+in St. Paul's Cathedral on October 29, 1915. It was a fitting and
+touching token of affection and admiration of one of our greatest
+national heroines, solemnly performed in one of the most sacred of our
+national shrines.
+
+The morning found London enshrouded in blue-grey mist; but at eleven
+o'clock, the time of service, the weather-worn old sanctuary commenced
+to gleam in pale sunshine, as if it were a halo from the glorious dead
+to lighten the gloom of the sorrowing multitude.
+
+St. Paul's Cathedral has witnessed many moving ceremonies, sad and
+joyful, pathetic and glorious, but never in its history had it witnessed
+a spectacle quite like the present occasion, which had its origin in a
+brutal act of tyranny that had given rise to a cry of horror to agitate
+the civilized world.
+
+Under Wren's great dome were gathered representatives of every
+department of the national life. Mr. E. W. Wallington attended on behalf
+of the King and Queen. It had been expected that Queen Alexandra would
+be similarly represented, but Her Majesty preferred to attend in person
+in strictest privacy, typical of that gracious tact that has made her
+universally beloved, and one more proof of her special friendship for
+nurses.
+
+The family of the martyred nurse was represented by two married sisters,
+Miss Scott Cavell, matron of the Hull and East Riding Convalescent Home,
+and other relatives. The aged mother was not present; she was too
+weighed down by weight of years and sorrow to face a public ordeal whose
+pathos would have been too poignant to bear. In imagination could be
+conjured up a white-haired stately dame in her quiet Norwich home,
+engaging in a simultaneous service all her own in the silence of her
+saddened heart.
+
+Among the more distinguished members of the congregation were the Prime
+Minister and not a few members of the Cabinet; members of both Houses of
+Parliament; Sir A. Keogh (representing Lord Kitchener); Lord Charles
+Beresford, a popular representative of the Navy; the Diplomatic Corps;
+the High Commissioners of Canada and Australia; the Deputy Lord Mayor
+and Sheriffs in state; and notable representatives of the arts,
+sciences, commerce, &c. For the rest there was a vast concourse, all
+bent upon the one single purpose of taking advantage of the grave and
+beautiful Anglican ritual to place on record, without bitterness, hate,
+or venom, their deep sense of the foul crime that had sent Edith Cavell
+to her death.
+
+But the outstanding feature of the multitude was the nurses. Six hundred
+of them were in reserved seats, but there must have been at least two
+thousand in the building. First and foremost were various members of
+Miss Cavell's training school in Belgium; and, of course, the 'London,'
+in their dark rifle green, had a prominent place in the great company of
+nurses of all grades, ambassadors and delegates of their noble
+profession. Many of them were simply in caps and aprons with a cloak
+around their shoulders, suggesting that they had come straight from
+their duties in the city's palaces of pain to engage in a service that
+was a fresh consecration of their merciful calling.
+
+Except for the gorgeous habiliments of the civic officials, Queen
+Alexandra's corps of nurses provided the only note of colour in the
+touch of red at the capes; for even the band of the First Life Guards
+was dressed in sober khaki instead of their usually resplendent
+uniforms.
+
+Wounded soldiers, often in groups, were pathetically noticeable among
+the congregation, poor fellows who could testify above all others to the
+mercy and healing brought to the sick and the maimed by 'a noble type of
+good heroic womanhood.' Of the whole immense gathering the majority were
+women. A large proportion of them were in black, the significant badge
+of grief for the loss of their own particular dear ones, the brave
+fellows who have laid down their lives on the battle-fields, or on the
+ocean for whose mistress-ship they died.
+
+As the Cathedral clock boomed out the hour the drums rolled in prelude
+to Chopin's 'Funeral March,' which struck the first note of emotion in
+the massed assembly and brought it to its feet. Slowly the choir, headed
+by the symbol of our and Edith Cavell's faith, moved to their places,
+preceding the clergy, chief of whom were the Bishop of London and Dr.
+Bury, the Bishop of Central Europe.
+
+The service proper commenced with the hymn 'Abide with me,' in which ten
+thousand voices joined, and never was it sung with more feeling and
+reverence. The last verse in particular must have called to every mind
+that inexpressibly sad scene in St. Gilles' Prison. The words brought
+solace and strength to Nurse Cavell, and some of her quiet faith, her
+touching fortitude, seemed to be communicated to the congregation.
+
+Following the special Psalms and the Lesson from the Burial Service,
+band and organ together played the Dead March in _Saul_; and as the
+notes pulsed and throbbed, pealed out with mighty rush of sound, or
+decreased to little more than the volume of human breath, the terror of
+death became secondary to the triumph of the spirit.
+
+With singularly moving effect the choir commenced to sing the Liturgy of
+St. Chrysostom, the beautiful prayer that contrasted so strongly with
+the crashing harmonies that had scarcely ceased to reverberate far up in
+the empty dome.
+
+Prayers from the Burial Service were followed by a special petition
+that, 'laying aside our divisions, we may be united in heart and mind to
+bear the burdens which the War has laid upon us....' The congregation
+sang 'Through the night of doubt and sorrow,' with its happy marching
+swing; the Bishop of London pronounced the Benediction; then came the
+resonant notes of the National Anthem; and the organ played a
+recessional as the choir and clergy retired. A moment later two thousand
+nurses fell to their knees, and 'if ever a soul went well charioted to
+its Maker it was the soul of Edith Cavell.'
+
+The service was over, and those who had been privileged to participate
+in a soul-searching ceremony streamed out into the hum of the mightiest
+camp of men the world has ever known. It was like coming from the Holy
+of Holies, with an everlasting memory to kindle the love and enthusiasm
+of all who worship at the shrine of duty.
+
+And the wonder of it all, it was a great national tribute to one who a
+fortnight earlier was unknown outside her own family and immediate
+circle of friends. She had 'lived unknown till persecution dragged her
+into fame and chased her up to heaven,' as a cry of horror and
+execration, mingled with agonized pity for her harrowing fate, flashed
+her name from peak to peak and continent to continent.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The columns of the British press were flooded with letters denouncing
+the crime and acknowledging the death of the martyr as an irresistibly
+compelling call to duty; and innumerable suggestions were made for
+perpetuating in tangible form the memory of a daughter of England who
+had taught us how to die.
+
+One notable scheme for a memorial was speedily announced in connexion
+with the London Hospital, which happened to be establishing a new
+nursing home, which was to bear the name of Queen Alexandra. With true
+nobility of heart Queen Alexandra promptly requested that her name
+should give way to that of Edith Cavell, and public subscriptions
+quickly assured an enlargement of the original scheme.
+
+The _Daily Telegraph_ initiated a subscription fund to provide a statue
+in stone and bronze by Sir George Frampton, and the eminent sculptor
+intimated that his work would be a labour of love and a voluntary gift.
+The Westminster City Council offered a site opposite the National
+Portrait Gallery; and thus the statue will face Trafalgar Square,
+already rich in national memories. Edith Cavell's death first became
+known in England on Trafalgar Day. The base of the Nelson Monument was
+hidden under the customary floral tributes to our greatest naval hero,
+and amid them was placed a wreath of laurels, a symbol of the martyrdom
+of the heroic nurse, of which the public would learn through the press
+the following day. It will be peculiarly fitting for the statue to Edith
+Cavell, whose last words were that she was glad to die for her country,
+to be within sight of the column where stands the one-armed Nelson,
+whose last immortal signal, 'England expects every man to do his duty,'
+has ever been an inspiration not only to the Fleet, but to every true
+lover of his country.
+
+Other ideas for the perpetuation of the name of Nurse Cavell included
+the raising of a Cavell Regiment, that should be a living monument of
+brave men, who would be heartened and vivified by the noble life and
+death of their devoted countrywoman. But the true spirit of Britons
+negatived the necessity for a particular regiment. The next day after
+the announcement of the death of Miss Cavell every eligible man in her
+native village joined the Forces, and the recruits, all told, must have
+numbered many thousands.
+
+Probably it would afford general satisfaction if another proposal bore
+fruit, namely, the institution of a new Order, equivalent to the
+Victoria Cross, for heroism by women of our race and Empire; and the
+heroism of our women in the present War emphasizes the justice and
+wisdom of some such acknowledgement.
+
+Up and down the country there were soon memorial schemes, generally in
+connexion with local hospitals or the British Red Cross Society. One of
+the first of this kind was the endowment of a bed in King Edward VII's
+Hospital, Cardiff, by Sir W. J. Thomas. There speedily followed the
+proposed institution of other beds to be named after Miss Cavell: the
+City of Dublin Hospital asked for £500 to endow a bed; the 'Ediths' of
+Yorkshire commenced to collect to perpetuate her memory in the north;
+and a fund of £1,000 was started for a free bed for nurses at the Mount
+Vernon Hospital for Consumption.
+
+Miss Scott Cavell made it known that her sister had hoped some time in
+the future to establish a home for nurses only, those either
+convalescent or tired, or who required a temporary home on holiday from
+abroad, or a temporary place of rest only. A subscription list was at
+once opened to give effect to a plan that had been so near Nurse
+Cavell's heart.
+
+A similar idea, but on a larger scale, was favoured by Sir John Howard,
+well known in Brighton as the giver of the John Howard Convalescent Home
+for Ladies in Reduced Circumstances. He announced that in memory of Miss
+Cavell he would build twenty-four cottage homes for incapacitated
+nurses, and endow each with the sum of ten shillings a week. This
+munificent memorial will entail the expenditure of about £30,000.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+BRITISH OFFICIAL REPROBATION
+
+
+The language of diplomacy is of a restrained and judicial character,
+even when dealing with questions that arouse in the lay mind a whole
+storm of feeling. But the letter of Sir Edward Grey of October 20, 1915,
+addressed to Mr. Page, the United States Ambassador in London, with
+studied calmness and marked dignity indicts the German authorities of an
+unwarrantable haste in carrying out the sentence that amounts to
+political murder. The Foreign Secretary's comments were as follows:
+
+     'Sir E. Grey is confident that the news of the execution of this
+     noble Englishwoman will be received with horror and disgust, not
+     only in the United States, but throughout the civilized world. Miss
+     Cavell was not even charged with espionage, and the fact that she
+     had nursed numbers of wounded German soldiers might have been
+     regarded as a complete reason in itself for treating her with
+     leniency.
+
+     'The attitude of the German authorities is, if possible, rendered
+     worse by the discreditable efforts successfully made by the
+     officials of the German civil administration at Brussels to conceal
+     the fact that sentence had been passed, and would be carried out
+     immediately. These efforts were no doubt prompted by the
+     determination to carry out the sentence before an appeal from the
+     finding of the court-martial could be made to a higher authority,
+     and show in the clearest manner that the German authorities
+     concerned were well aware that the carrying out of the sentence was
+     not warranted by any consideration.
+
+     'Further comment on their proceedings would be superfluous.
+
+     'In conclusion, Sir E. Grey would request Mr. Page to express to
+     Mr. Whitlock and the staff of the United States Legation at
+     Brussels the grateful thanks of His Majesty's Government for their
+     untiring efforts on Miss Cavell's behalf. He is fully satisfied
+     that no stone was left unturned to secure for Miss Cavell a fair
+     trial, and, when sentence had been pronounced, a mitigation
+     thereof.
+
+     'Sir E. Grey realizes that Mr. Whitlock was placed in a very
+     embarrassing position by the failure of the German authorities to
+     inform him that the sentence had been passed, and would be carried
+     out at once. In order, therefore, to forestall any unjust criticism
+     which might be made in this country, he is publishing Mr.
+     Whitlock's dispatch to Mr. Page without delay.'
+
+Sir Edward Grey also wrote to the Spanish Ambassador in London
+acknowledging the good services of the Spanish Minister at Brussels, and
+concluding thus:
+
+     'His Majesty's Government much appreciates the efforts made by the
+     Marquis de Villalobar on this occasion, and the sentiments of
+     humanity and chivalry which animated him, and they would be
+     grateful if your Excellency would be good enough to so inform the
+     Spanish Government.'
+
+In the House of Lords the Earl of Desart asked the Government if they
+could give any information with regard to the execution of Miss Edith
+Cavell by the German authorities in Belgium. Her offence, he said, of
+assisting her own countrymen and the countrymen of our Allies to escape
+was one which a belligerent was entitled to protect itself against, and
+a sentence of execution might even be passed, but such sentence ought
+never to have been carried out by any country. It was rumoured that
+other persons against whom similar charges had been made were lying in
+peril of their lives, and it might be possible through the action of
+neutral countries to prevent a recurrence of one of the greatest
+tragedies of the War.
+
+The Marquis of Lansdowne replied:
+
+     'I am not surprised, and I am sure no member of the House can be
+     surprised, that the noble Earl should have called attention to this
+     most deplorable incident. We have been during the last few months
+     continually shocked by occurrences each more terrible and moving
+     than its predecessor; but I doubt whether any incident has moved
+     public opinion in this country more than the manner in which this
+     poor lady was, I suppose I may say, executed in cold blood.
+
+     'It is no doubt the case that she may by her conduct have rendered
+     herself liable to punishment, perhaps to severe punishment, for
+     acts that could be taken to be a violation of the kind of law which
+     prevails when war is going on. But I have no hesitation in saying
+     that she might at any rate have expected that measure of mercy
+     which, I believe, in no civilized country would have been refused
+     to one who was not only a woman, but a very brave and devoted
+     woman, and one who had given all her efforts and energies to the
+     mitigation of the sufferings of others.
+
+     'I am able to tell my noble friend that a full report relating to
+     the circumstances under which Miss Cavell was executed was
+     forwarded to the Foreign Office by the United States Ambassador. We
+     learn from this report that the representatives of the United
+     States and Spain at Brussels up to the very last moment neglected
+     no opportunity or effort in order to obtain a commutation of the
+     death sentence passed on Miss Cavell, or even to obtain at least a
+     period of suspense before that sentence was carried into effect.
+     These efforts failed.
+
+     'With regard to the second part of my noble friend's question, I am
+     able to tell him that two French ladies have been condemned to
+     death on a charge of sheltering British and French fugitive
+     soldiers. These ladies were to have been executed on Monday last;
+     but I am glad to be able to add that, as the result of strong
+     representations made by His Majesty the King of Spain and by the
+     Pope, the execution of these sentences has been postponed pending
+     consideration by the German Emperor of the reports on both cases.
+     I will only add that I am convinced there is not a man or woman in
+     this country who will not join with the noble Earl in the protest
+     he has made against this terrible occurrence.'
+
+In the House of Commons Mr. Asquith, the Prime Minister, said:
+
+     'If there be moments such as come to all of us when we are tempted
+     to be fainthearted, let us ask ourselves what year in our history
+     has done more to justify our faith in the manhood and the womanhood
+     of our people? It has brought us, as we cannot at this moment
+     forget, the imperishable story of the last hours of Edith Cavell,
+     facing a terrible ordeal worse than that of the battle-field. She
+     has taught the bravest man amongst us the supreme lesson of
+     courage. Yes, and in this United Kingdom and throughout the
+     Dominions of the Crown there are thousands of such women. A year
+     ago we did not know it. We have great traditions, but a nation
+     cannot exist by traditions alone. Thank God, we have living
+     examples of all the qualities which have built up and sustained our
+     Empire. Let us be worthy of them, and endure to the end.'
+
+The Secretary for Foreign Affairs was asked whether, according to
+Article 10 of the Hague Convention of 1907 and the guarantee of the
+neutrality of Belgium, to which Prussia was a party, the late Miss
+Cavell was, according to such law as could be applied to her case,
+guilty of any military offence.
+
+Sir E. Grey: 'It seems unnecessary to go into technical legal points to
+condemn what has been done in this case. The reprobation of it, which I
+believe is widespread in the world, rests upon higher considerations,
+which arouse deeper feelings, than mere illegality.'
+
+In another question the Secretary for Foreign Affairs was asked whether
+he had taken, or intended to take, any steps to convey to the Military
+Governor of Brussels that, when opportunity offered, he would be held
+personally responsible by His Majesty's Government for the
+quasi-judicial assassination of Miss Cavell.
+
+Lord Robert Cecil: 'On May 5 last the Prime Minister assured the House
+that due reparation would be exacted from all persons, whatever their
+position, who can be shown to have maltreated our prisoners in Germany.
+That pledge still holds good, and applies with twofold force in the case
+of the savage murder under legal forms of a noble woman. I do not think
+that it would serve any good purpose to attempt to convey this resolve
+to any particular German official, who, for aught we know at present,
+may not be the chief offender.'
+
+The statement of the Prime Minister to which the above reference was
+made was as follows:
+
+     'The Government were at least as anxious as anybody else that when
+     the proper time came due reparation should be exacted from all
+     persons, whatever their position or their antecedents, who could be
+     shown to have violated the most elementary principles, and perhaps
+     the most fundamental, of all the rules and usages of civilized
+     warfare.'
+
+If there be any value in the British Government's expressed
+determination, then assuredly von Bissing and von der Lancken will be
+indicted for the offence that stinks in the nostrils of the whole
+world.
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+GERMANY'S CYNICAL DEFENCE
+
+
+Germany speedily found it wise to attempt to justify the execution of
+Miss Cavell in order to moderate the storm of indignation that had been
+aroused in neutral countries. To that end Dr. Zimmermann,
+Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, set forth the German defence in an
+interview granted to a United States correspondent in Berlin.
+
+     'It was a pity,' said Dr. Zimmermann, 'that Miss Cavell had to be
+     executed, but it was necessary. She was judged justly. We hope it
+     will not be necessary to have any more executions.
+
+     'I see from the English and American press that the shooting of an
+     Englishwoman and the condemnation of several other women in
+     Brussels for treason has caused a sensation, and capital against us
+     is being made out of the fact. It is undoubtedly a terrible thing
+     that the woman has been executed; but consider what would happen to
+     a State, particularly in war, if it left crimes aimed at the safety
+     of its armies to go unpunished because committed by women. No
+     criminal code in the world--least of all the laws of war--makes
+     such a distinction; and the feminine sex has but one preference,
+     according to legal usages, namely, that women in a delicate
+     condition may not be executed. Otherwise men and women are equal
+     before the law, and only the degree of guilt makes a difference in
+     the sentence for the crime and its consequences.
+
+     'I have before me the court's verdict in the Cavell case, and can
+     assure you that it was gone into with the utmost thoroughness, and
+     was investigated and cleared up to the smallest details. The
+     result was so convincing, and the circumstances were so clear, that
+     no war court in the world could have given any other verdict, for
+     it was not concerned with a single emotional deed of one person,
+     but a well-thought-out plot, with many far-reaching ramifications,
+     which for nine months succeeded in doing valuable service to our
+     enemies and great detriment to our armies. Countless Belgian,
+     French, and English soldiers are again fighting in the ranks of the
+     Allies who owe their escape to the band now found guilty, whose
+     head was the Cavell woman. Only the utmost sternness could do away
+     with such activities under the very nose of our authorities, and a
+     Government which in such case does not resort to the sternest
+     measures sins against its most elementary duties toward the safety
+     of its own army.
+
+     'All those convicted were thoroughly aware of the nature of their
+     acts. The court particularly weighed this point with care, letting
+     off several of the accused because they were in doubt as to
+     whether they knew that their actions were punishable. Those
+     condemned knew what they were doing, for numerous public
+     proclamations had pointed out the fact that aiding enemies' armies
+     was punishable with death.
+
+     'I know that the motives of the condemned were not base; that they
+     acted from patriotism; but in war one must be prepared to seal
+     one's patriotism with blood, whether one faces the enemy in battle,
+     or otherwise in the interest of one's cause does deeds which justly
+     bring after them the death penalty. Among our Russian prisoners are
+     several young girls who fought against us in soldiers' uniforms.
+     Had one of these girls fallen, no one would have accused us of
+     barbarity against women. Why now, when another woman has met the
+     death to which she knowingly exposed herself, as did her comrades
+     in battle?
+
+     'There are moments in the life of nations where consideration for
+     the existence of the individual is a crime against all. Such a
+     moment was here. It was necessary once for all to put an end to the
+     activity of our enemies, regardless of their motives; therefore the
+     death penalty was executed so as to frighten off all those who,
+     counting on preferential treatment for their sex, take part in
+     undertakings punishable by death.
+
+     'It was proved after a long trial of the sentenced persons that
+     they for some months past had been engaged in assisting Belgians of
+     military age to enlist in hostile armies, and in enabling French
+     and English deserters to escape the country. They had many helpers,
+     and had organized branches.
+
+     'The Governor-General had repeatedly issued warnings against such
+     activity, pointing out that severe punishment for such action was
+     unavoidable.
+
+     'The guilty persons were sentenced in a public sitting according to
+     the law based on the provisions of the imperial penal code and the
+     military penal code for war treason and espionage. No special law
+     exists for Belgium, and no so-called "usage of war" influenced the
+     verdict of the court.'
+
+Dr. Zimmermann maintained that the execution was carried out in
+accordance with the established regulations, death occurring immediately
+after the first volley, as attested by the physician who was present.
+
+The greater part of Dr. Zimmermann's futile reasoning is not worth
+discussion in detail. The one outstanding fact is the common belief that
+no military authorities in Europe, other than German, would have
+executed Miss Cavell for an offence actuated by purest motives of
+patriotism, and in which there was not the faintest suspicion of
+espionage. It may be remarked, too, that in America Judge Lynch never
+executed a woman. The attempt to draw a parallel case between Nurse
+Cavell and Russian women who have fought as soldiers is puerile in the
+extreme. In the case of the Russian, she is dressed in male uniform, and
+the German who shoots her in action does so in ignorance of her sex;
+Miss Cavell was a Red Cross nurse whose services to German wounded
+alone should have struck a spark of compassion.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Later, an inspired telegram was issued from Berlin to counteract the
+'incorrect and exaggerated' discussions in the foreign press. It was
+stated that Miss Cavell was sentenced in a public sitting, although it
+is an incontrovertible fact that the American Legation could not get
+permission to be represented. It is laid to Miss Cavell's charge that
+she 'nursed only rich people for heavy fees.' Even if it were true, it
+would not palliate the German offence of hurried and clandestine murder;
+but we know, and the Germans know, that her whole life was spent in
+doing good for others. Finally is repeated the old statement that
+cruelties were committed by Lord Kitchener during the Boer War on women
+and children. This oft-repeated libel needs no refutation of ours,
+because it was demolished years ago by the German official history of
+the Boer War.
+
+The next step in German impudence was an attempt to make believe that
+in the documents exchanged between the American Legation in Brussels and
+the German authorities as published by the British Government, some
+circumstances of the utmost importance are inaccurately reported by the
+Belgian lawyer who acts as legal adviser to the Legation. To this Sir
+Edward Grey informed the press that the papers relating to the case of
+Miss Cavell were published exactly as they were received from the
+American Embassy and with the American Embassy's consent.
+
+On November 20, however, nearly a month later, the British Foreign
+Office did make public one correction:
+
+     'The letter addressed by the United States Minister at Brussels to
+     the Ambassador in London, under date October 14, to the effect that
+     the German prosecutor had asked for a sentence of death against
+     Miss Edith Cavell _and eight other persons implicated by her
+     testimony_ was due to erroneous information furnished to the
+     United States Legation, and, so far as it has been possible to
+     discover, no other person has been directly implicated by any
+     testimony on the part of Miss Cavell.'
+
+The acknowledgement of this mistake, however, could have afforded the
+Germans but little satisfaction, because its only effect was the removal
+of a slur on the loyalty of Miss Cavell to her friends.
+
+In the clumsy attempt to justify their savagery the Germans have done
+nothing to prevent judgement going by default in the heart of all
+civilized nations. They omit all reference to their inhuman haste and
+calculated trickery, and their venomous refusal to allow exhumation and
+proper burial. No laws of war permit such outrages, no military
+necessities can excuse and no pedantic partisan can vindicate them.
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+JUSTICE AND SAVAGERY CONTRASTED
+
+
+Sir John Simon, the late Home Secretary, in an interview with a United
+States correspondent in London, averred that in the record of Britain's
+treatment of persons accused of military offences the case of Miss
+Cavell had and could have no parallel. To no woman, even in cases of
+clearly proved espionage, had Britain meted out a sentence of death; and
+in no case is a woman, whatever her nationality, tried in any but a
+civil court.
+
+It may be urged that in an occupied territory such as Belgium the
+administration of the law may call for slight difference; but the Cavell
+case was not a sudden or unexpected discovery that called for a
+drumhead court-martial on a battle-field. The 'crime' was committed in
+Brussels, where the invaders claim to have restored orderly government
+under their own civil governor.
+
+     'In England the accused is brought before a tribunal which holds a
+     preliminary inquiry taking the summary evidence. He is always
+     assisted by a lawyer, and a complete record of the evidence, oral
+     and documentary, is given to the accused, who is then allowed an
+     interval to prepare for defence. _If it is a woman, the trial
+     always takes place before a civil tribunal_; if a man, he has the
+     right to claim to be tried before a civil tribunal instead of a
+     court-martial, if he be a British subject. At the trial, whether
+     military or civil, the lawyers for the defence have the same
+     opportunities as are given the accused in an ordinary case in peace
+     times.
+
+     'In the last case involving a woman in this country the offender
+     was of German birth, though technically a subject of another
+     country owing to marriage. She was acting in association with a
+     male spy, and was detected travelling to various points in order to
+     collect information about naval defences. The evidence against her
+     was overwhelming, and did not depend solely on witnesses, but on
+     documents found in her possession and letters written by her and
+     her associates.
+
+     'Going through the preliminary proceedings as previously described,
+     she was tried in September by three civil judges of our High Court
+     and a jury, and was convicted, not of harbouring German soldiers,
+     but of deliberate and persistent spying for the purpose of
+     providing the enemy with important information. Her male companion
+     was condemned to death; she was sentenced to ten years'
+     imprisonment.
+
+     'In the case of a court-martial, reconsideration always takes
+     place; in a civil trial, such as the one just recounted, there is a
+     right of appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeal and consideration
+     by the Home Secretary, who gives his advice as to the prerogative
+     of mercy. In the particular case mentioned the woman did not
+     appeal.
+
+     'In any case when the accused has claimed to have connexion with a
+     neutral country we have not waited for application to be made to
+     us. We thought it right to give the neutral Embassy information of
+     the arrest. It has happened in several cases that the accused was
+     carrying what he alleged to be a United States passport. In such
+     cases, as the others, the American Embassy was consulted, and the
+     solicitors and counsel for defence were retained with the Embassy's
+     approval.
+
+     'Execution never follows a sentence here without a proper interval.
+     Indeed, there was a case not long ago when on the eve of the
+     execution a postponement was requested in order that some further
+     representation might be considered. The sentence was postponed for
+     a week, and the whole case was reviewed in the light of the new
+     material. In a case now pending the accused says he wishes to call
+     evidence from the other side of the world. We don't know whether
+     the evidence will be helpful, but we have postponed the final trial
+     from August to December.
+
+     'Mind you, I am not claiming any credit for the British Government
+     for our procedure. There is nothing unusual, to my mind, in taking
+     care that the accused persons have the fullest opportunity for
+     their defence. The thing that strikes Englishmen as most incredible
+     in the case of Miss Cavell is the calculated indifference with
+     which the inquiries of the American and Spanish Ministers were
+     treated. If the excuse is suggested that in time of war severe and
+     harsh measures have to be taken, our own experience is enough to
+     show that it is possible to combine a regard for the rights of the
+     accused and the respect for humane considerations with the effect
+     of punishment of hostile offences of the most serious kind.
+
+     'It would have seemed impossible for the Germans to do anything to
+     increase the horror produced by their behaviour in Belgium. It
+     would have seemed impossible to do anything which could cement more
+     closely the bond of sympathy between the populations of England and
+     Belgium. But they have accomplished both impossibilities by one
+     horrible act of brutality.'
+
+The foregoing contrast between British and German conceptions of justice
+is practically the difference between barbarism and civilization; and
+Sir John Simon's impressive exposition of the difference between the two
+systems calls for nothing to elaborate it.
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+PULPIT AND PEN UNITE IN DENUNCIATION
+
+
+The publication of the official correspondence affording the details of
+Miss Cavell's stealthy execution raised a storm of righteous
+indignation, which found expression in every pulpit in the British
+Isles; while on the platform or in the press men of light and leading
+joined in their condemnation of the German atrocity. The following are
+but a few notable examples of whole sheaves of similar outpourings.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Bishop of London, in preaching the Trafalgar Day Sermon, at St.
+Martin-in-the-Fields, said:
+
+     'The cold-blooded murder of Miss Cavell, a poor English girl,
+     deliberately shot by Germans for housing refugees, will run the
+     sinking of the _Lusitania_ close in the civilized world as the
+     greatest crime in history. There is one thing about the incident
+     which, perhaps, was not taken into account by those who perpetrated
+     the crime. It will settle the matter once for all about recruiting
+     in Great Britain. There will be no need now of compulsion. I wonder
+     what Nelson would have said if he had been told that an
+     Englishwoman had been shot in cold blood by the members of any
+     other nation? He would have made more than the diplomatic inquiries
+     which have been made by a great neutral into this crime, right and
+     proper as those inquiries are. He would have made his inquiries by
+     the thunder of the guns of the British Fleet, and pressed the
+     question with the Nelson touch which won Trafalgar, as, indeed, our
+     own Fleet at this moment is only too ready to do. But is it
+     possible that there is one young man in England to-day who will
+     sit still under this monstrous wrong? The three million new
+     recruits asked for will be there. Why was she put to death? Why was
+     she murdered? Three thousand thousand Englishmen, and Scotsmen and
+     Irishmen too, will know the reason why. God's curse is on the
+     nation that tramples underfoot and defies the laws of chivalry
+     which once relieved the horrors of war.'
+
+The following is the Rev. F. B. Meyer's eloquent contribution:
+
+     'We may thank God for the chivalrous reverence in which the British
+     race holds womanhood; and how nobly that reverence has been
+     responded to is evident in the unparalleled service which the women
+     of our time have been giving to fill the depleted ranks of labour
+     and to render invaluable service in all departments, from the
+     hospital to the harvest-field.
+
+     'The crowning horror of the German treatment of womanhood is the
+     atrocious murder of this woman, who lived to alleviate suffering,
+     and who only did what any one of us would have done in saving the
+     lives of refugees who sought the shelter of a home. There should be
+     no necessity for executing a woman in war-time; and if it is said
+     that crime is committed in passion, the murder of Miss Cavell is
+     inexcusable even on that ground, because she was executed in cold
+     blood.
+
+     'It is impossible for any British men who are of suitable age and
+     physical fitness for the army to hold back, because it is certain
+     that the measure meted out to Nurse Cavell would be gentleness
+     itself compared to the treatment which would befall our womanhood
+     if once the German invasion triumphed over our resistance.
+
+     'If only the crime that we deprecate to-day would lead us to
+     concentrate our thought on the War, we should be doing more than we
+     realize towards bringing it to an end. The pessimist, the croaker,
+     the grumbler, the critic, work in a contrary direction. Our
+     enemies, with their Hymns of Hate and concentrated venom,
+     endeavour to hurt us, and they forget that passions of that sort
+     recoil on their instigators as poisonous gases roll back with the
+     wind to those who sent them. We do not concentrate in a spirit of
+     revenge or hatred, but in the stern resolve of an entire nation
+     that we shall never stay our hands until our Empire is free from
+     all fear of menace.
+
+     'Miss Cavell has set the world an example of how we should bear
+     ourselves in a supreme crisis. Her heroic conduct, her calm
+     composure in the face of death, cannot be accounted for merely by
+     her temperament. They were due to her religious faith.
+
+     'She died as a Christian, looking towards the Redeemer, and forgave
+     her persecutors, and she will go on ministering still.
+
+     'A life like hers will reverberate through the world. Thousands
+     will be inspired by her example, and long after the War has passed
+     away her name and character will shine like a beacon light in
+     history.'
+
+The Rev. Lord William Cecil contributed a special sermon to the columns
+of the _Daily Telegraph_, of which is quoted only the final portion:
+
+     'Edith Cavell lives in the heart of the nation; nay, in the esteem
+     of the world.
+
+     'She by her deed has won undying renown, and has made England more
+     glorious. Far and wide will they tell the tale, and add--"Of such
+     are the English."
+
+     'The work of the statesman passes. New generations arise, with new
+     problems and new combinations. The victories of the general are
+     forgotten or live in the musty pages of history with dates and
+     sententious comments of the historian. But glorious deeds of
+     sacrifice never die. They live and grow mightier as years roll on.
+
+     'The old English chronicler, Hall, after discussing the question
+     whether Joan of Arc was justly killed or no, adds this
+     comment--that "it matters not, for in a few years the whole story
+     will be forgotten." Poor fool! He forgot that good deeds live, and
+     therefore can never be forgotten. So we shall tell the story of
+     Edith Cavell to the wondering children, and they on their knees
+     will lisp in childish words a prayer that they may grow like such a
+     holy woman.
+
+     'And the ages that are to come will learn her name. Yes, long after
+     other great actors in this awful tragedy are forgotten--when the
+     names of kings and kaisers are lost in the obscurity of the
+     past--the sacrifice made by Edith Cavell will be remembered as we
+     remember the holy deeds of saints and the martyrdom of the
+     Christian virgins.
+
+     'This foul world needs some saint to save it.
+
+     'The world that tells lies, breaks sworn treaties, murders and
+     kills, needs a ransom. Vile as it is, so vile that those who look
+     on it marvel at the depravity of human nature, and now, as a
+     sin-offering, a woman has been offered by the blood-lusting
+     Germans.
+
+     'The sacrifice will surely tell in the great world beyond, and a
+     blessing will come from her death.
+
+     'The heavenly trumpets sound the victory. Fear and cruelty shall
+     not prevail. Honour, love, and sacrifice are conquerors. And this
+     world will be saved from that combination of human power and
+     vileness which is revealed to the world by the Prussian military
+     system.
+
+     'Edith Cavell, by her sacrifice, pleads with God to send
+     righteousness again on this war-torn earth.
+
+     'She will conquer.'
+
+Mr. T. P. O'Connor delivered more than one eloquent speech, and that
+which we quote may be accepted as the voice of Ireland:
+
+     'If ever we had any doubts as to what our duty is in this War, it
+     must have been removed by the events of the past few days. We have
+     given to this cause of liberty one of the noblest figures that ever
+     appeared in the martyrology of liberty throughout the history of
+     the world.
+
+     'I like to think of Miss Cavell as a symbol of our race. By her
+     devotion to duty, her assiduity in her work, her determination to
+     stand by her post, her humanity to the enemy as well as to the
+     friend, her words of courage, and at the same time of broad pity
+     and humanity, even under the shadow of death, that woman has done
+     more to inspire our race in our fight than the gallantry even of a
+     hundred thousand men.
+
+     'I am glad to see that a great newspaper has opened a fund for the
+     purpose of raising an adequate monument to her memory; but no
+     monument of marble or of bronze will speak as her own personality,
+     her own life, and her death.'
+
+The following is extracted from a powerful article by Professor J. H.
+Morgan in the _Graphic_:
+
+     'The execution of Miss Cavell is not, perhaps, the most revolting
+     of the innumerable outrages committed by the German army, but it
+     is certainly the most callous and the most authoritative. Hundreds
+     of women and young girls have been outraged by German officers and
+     men; many have been shot, and others burnt alive. But what
+     distinguishes the case of Miss Cavell--not forgetting the singular
+     nobility of her character--from these obscurer tragedies is the
+     fact that, owing to the presence of the vigilant and high-minded
+     Minister of a neutral State, the veil has been lifted upon the
+     whole proceedings, from their inception to their mournful
+     conclusion in the courtyard of the prison of St. Gilles, and the
+     world has had revealed to it in the most lurid light the sinister
+     character of German "justice."
+
+     'The noble woman who, out of the abundance of her charity, sought
+     to save men from these things has been condemned and executed on a
+     charge of having offended against military law. I know nothing more
+     tragically ironical than that the Power which has broken all laws,
+     human and divine, should seek to justify the condemnation of Edith
+     Cavell with all the pomp of a tribunal of justice. While thousands
+     of ravishers and spoilers go free, one woman who had spent her life
+     in ministries to such as were sick and afflicted is handed over to
+     the executioner. Truly there has been no such trial since Barabbas
+     was released and Christ led forth to the hill of Calvary.'
+
+Mr. G. K. Chesterton contributed a scathing indictment to the
+_Illustrated London News_:
+
+     'There is not much that can be said, or said easily, about the
+     highest aspects of the murder of Edith Cavell. When we have said,
+     "Dear in the sight of God is the death of His saints," we have said
+     as much as mere literature has ever been able to say in the matter.
+
+     'The thing was not done to protect the Prussian power. It was done
+     to satisfy a Prussian appetite. The mad disproportion between the
+     possible need of restraining their enemy and the frantic
+     needlessness of killing her is simply the measure of the distance
+     by which the distorted Prussian psychology has departed from the
+     moral instincts of mankind. The key to the Prussian is in this
+     extraordinary fact: that he does truly and in his heart believe
+     that he is _admired_ whenever he can manage to be dreaded. An
+     indefensible act of public violence is to him what a poem is to a
+     poet or a song to a bird. It at once relieves and expresses him; he
+     feels more himself while he is doing it. His whole conception of
+     the State is a series of such _coups d'état_. In Poland, in Alsace,
+     in Lorraine, in the Danish provinces, he has wholly failed to
+     govern; indeed, he has never really attempted to govern. For
+     governing means making people at home.
+
+     'Wherever he goes, and whatever success he gains, he will always
+     make it an occasion for sanguinary pantomimes of this kind. And
+     awful as is the individual loss, it is well that now, at the very
+     moment when men, wily or weak, are beginning to talk of
+     conciliatory possibilities in this incurable criminal, he should
+     himself have provided us with this appalling reply.'
+
+Mr. Hall Caine attended the great Memorial Service in St. Paul's
+Cathedral; and below is a short extract from his impressions as recorded
+in the _Daily Telegraph_:
+
+     'What has brought this multitude together? A great victory? The
+     close of a great campaign? The funeral (as at this time last year)
+     of a grand old warrior who, after many glorious victories, has
+     died, as is most fit, within sound of the guns in the War he
+     foretold, and is being borne to his lasting place amid the
+     acclamations of his countrymen and the homage of the world? No, but
+     the memory of a poor woman, a hospital nurse, who has been foully
+     done to death by a barbarous enemy, condemned for acts of mercy and
+     humanity, tried in secret, shot in haste, and then buried in a
+     traitor's grave!
+
+     'What a triumph for religion, for Christianity, for the Church!
+     What an answer to Nietzsche! What a rebuke to Treitschke! What a
+     smashing blow to the all-wise philosophers who have been telling us
+     that Corsica has conquered Galilee! That in these dark and evil
+     days the people of London should assemble in tens of thousands to
+     thank God for the shadow of the scaffold and to find inspiration in
+     thinking of the martyr's end is proof enough that not lust of
+     empire, not "the will to power," not war for its own sake or for
+     the triumphs it brings in its train, but religion, with its
+     righteousness, is still the bread of our souls.'
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+THE LASH OF THE WORLD'S PRESS
+
+SELECTIONS FROM BRITISH JOURNALS
+
+
+_The Times._
+
+     'The ordinary German mind is doubtless incapable of understanding
+     the "horror and disgust" which the military execution of Miss
+     Cavell will arouse throughout the civilized world. We shall be
+     surprised if within the next few days the press of all neutral
+     lands does not re-echo these feelings with an intensity which will
+     astonish the disciples of "Kultur." Here we have in its highest
+     development that boasted product of the Teutonic intelligence and
+     the Teutonic heart. The very spirit of Zabern, but of Zabern in
+     war-time, broods over the whole brutal and stupid story. There is
+     not in Europe, outside Germany and her Allies, a man who can read
+     it without the deepest emotions of pity and of shame. The victim
+     was a lady who had devoted her life to the noblest and the most
+     womanly work woman can do. She was the head of a great nursing
+     institute which has trained numbers of nurses for Germany as well
+     as for Belgium. She herself nursed many wounded Germans at the
+     beginning of the War. She has been sentenced to death by their
+     officers, and shot by their comrades. So is it that the Germans
+     requite the charity of strangers. She had been guilty of a military
+     offence--the offence of harbouring her own wounded countrymen and
+     Belgians amongst whom she had lived and worked, and of getting them
+     across the Dutch frontier. That was enough for the uniformed
+     pedants who tried her, and for their civilian subordinates. She was
+     perfectly straightforward and truthful with the court. They sent
+     her to her death upon her own admissions. They could not, even by
+     their own harsh law, have convicted her without these admissions.
+     Her frankness did not profit her any more than did her sex, her
+     calling, or her services to the Kaiser's wounded troops. There was
+     the fact: she acknowledged certain acts which could be twisted into
+     "conveying soldiers to the enemy," and the legal penalty for this
+     offence under the German military code is death. That was enough
+     for her judges. They sentenced her on a Monday afternoon, and had
+     her shot in the dark at two o'clock next morning. Napoleon ordered
+     a similar "execution" in the ditch of Vincennes. It cost him and
+     his Empire dear.
+
+     'There is not much more to tell. The Councillor to the American
+     Legation was refused permission to visit the prisoner after
+     sentence, and a like refusal was at first given to the English
+     clergyman, Mr. Gahan. This last refusal, worthy of the Jacobins who
+     refused a confessor to Marie Antoinette, was, however, not
+     persisted in, and the doomed Englishwoman had the consolations of
+     her own Church, and received the Holy Communion from Mr. Gahan's
+     hands. He found her "admirably strong and calm." She admitted again
+     her guilt according to German military law, but assured him that
+     "she was happy to die for her country." Her country with one voice
+     acknowledges the claim. She did in very truth die for England, and
+     England will not lightly forget her death. That she had committed a
+     technical offence is undeniable; but so did Andreas Hofer and other
+     victims of Napoleonic tyranny whose doom patriotic Germans never
+     cease to execrate. We do not know whether the hide-bound brutality
+     of the military authorities or the lying trickery of the civilians
+     is the more repulsive. Both were determined that Miss Cavell should
+     die, and they conspired together to shoot her before an appeal
+     could be lodged. They have killed the English nurse, as Napoleon
+     killed the Duc D'Enghien, and by killing her they have immeasurably
+     deepened the stain of infamy that degrades them in the eyes of the
+     whole world. They could have done no deed better calculated to
+     serve the British cause.'
+
+_The Morning Post._
+
+     'Often as in the course of the past fifteen months we have been
+     astounded by the relapses into elemental barbarism which our
+     adversaries have exhibited, perhaps there is no case that shows up
+     so much as this the ghastly descent of the German character into
+     primitive brutality. When it is admitted that the charge was proved
+     true, by the accused's confessions, and that it was a charge that,
+     according to the military code in force at Brussels, might be
+     visited with the penalty of death, all is said that can be said for
+     the real criminals. A proclamation of martial law usually invests
+     the military authority with the power of inflicting the severest
+     penalties over a wide range of offences. This does not mean that
+     that authority is to deal in nothing but death sentences. But it
+     is quite useless to look for any colourable pretext for German
+     remorselessness in this matter. They were resolved from the first
+     to commit this deed of cruelty, but they were feverishly anxious
+     that it should be kept secret until beyond recall. From the moment
+     that the American Legation was known to have got news of Miss
+     Cavell's arrest and to be concerned in seeing that she was properly
+     defended, the German local Government begins to adopt every means
+     for throwing dust in the eyes of the United States representatives.
+     Surely such a story has never been presented to the modern world as
+     is here unfolded.
+
+     'All who have given attention to Napoleonic literature must have
+     recollections of prints of the death of the Duc D'Enghien--the
+     firing party under the glare of the torches, the prisoner standing
+     on the brink of his newly dug grave. In Napoleon's lifetime, and
+     for many years after, nothing hurt his personal reputation more
+     than this summary, furtive execution in the dead of night that
+     seemed to proclaim its own blood-guiltiness. But the great
+     Frenchman acted in this matter with the motives and in the manner
+     of an Eastern Sultan. He saw a man whom, rightly or wrongly, he
+     believed to be a danger to himself; he arrested him lawlessly on
+     foreign soil, and struck him down lawlessly. But what is there in
+     common between such an episode and the midnight execution of a
+     defenceless woman who never meant harm to any human being, who only
+     came within reach of the criminal law by her superior regard for
+     the higher precepts of mercy and compassion?
+
+     'When we think of the scene in that Brussels jail we may well
+     wonder that at this time of day it should be possible to get men to
+     participate in such a deed. Is it that insufficient blood has been
+     shed during this past year that men should hunger after one
+     harmless life? Yet we should evidently make a great mistake to
+     treat our heroic countrywoman's end as if a mere case for
+     compassion.
+
+     'One cannot mourn beyond a certain point for such a death. Who
+     could have dreamed a few years ago that English womanhood would be
+     producing such a heroine--the counterpart and realization in actual
+     life of the Antigone whom the tragedian's inspired imagination has
+     held up to the world's admiration for so many centuries?'
+
+_The Daily Telegraph._
+
+     'We do not know whether any comment would be adequate in a case
+     like this, or whether, indeed, all comment is not superfluous. We
+     have had large experience of the brutality with which the enemy
+     conducts his warfare, and especially the inhuman recklessness with
+     which he pursues his vengeance against the civilian population of
+     the countries which he invades. We venture to think, however, that
+     in the case of a nurse, a woman whose life is dedicated to the
+     alleviation of pain, cruelty of this kind, cruelty that presses
+     against her the very extremity of martial law, is more diabolical
+     even than all the other counts of a growing indictment. No other
+     nation in Europe, we believe, would have put a nurse to death in
+     circumstances of this kind. They would have made some allowance for
+     her woman's tender heart, even though she had been guilty of an
+     offence, and therefore deserved some punishment. Nothing, probably,
+     can now brand with fouler infamy the German name, stained as it is
+     by all the damning items in its past record, from Louvain and the
+     _Lusitania_ down to the murder of an English nurse.'
+
+_The Standard._
+
+     'Those who sorrow for the death of a good and brave Englishwoman
+     who died for her country as truly and nobly as any soldier in the
+     field must most warmly acknowledge the efforts made on her behalf
+     by the Ministers of the United States and of Spain. Everything
+     which could be done by gentlemen of kindly spirit and resolution to
+     save her was done. We are once more under a debt of unbounded
+     gratitude to those neutrals who have, from the first, striven to
+     maintain some of the mitigations of the horrors of warfare which
+     our enemy thrusts aside with contempt. They strained their
+     diplomatic prerogatives to the utmost in the cause of mercy, and,
+     if all their efforts were unavailing to combat the logical savagery
+     of the German military mind, the fault was none of theirs. We must
+     add also that, despite the horror at the outrage which they cannot
+     conceal, the representatives of the United States who have reported
+     are perfectly fair to the Germans. Although their own proposals for
+     the defence of Miss Cavell were rejected, they do not deny that her
+     trial was, in a sense, fair, and that the issue was in accordance
+     with the evidence and the provisions of the German military code.
+     The correspondence of Mr. Brand Whitlock with Mr. Page, and the
+     documents he forwards, gain the greater cogency from their frank
+     avowal of that fact. Murder by process of law is, of course, no
+     rare thing. Judge Jeffreys was a murderer of that kind. But it has
+     always aroused greater anger and contempt among men of right
+     feeling than murder of any other kind, and those, we are sure, will
+     be the feelings aroused throughout the world by the story of the
+     murder of this noble woman, who, if she offended against the laws
+     of her country's foes, could have been so easily rendered harmless
+     by means far less severe. The vengeance of the strong upon the weak
+     is the most abhorrent spectacle in the eyes of all right-minded
+     people which can be exhibited.
+
+     'It would be easy to pour forth vials of denunciation on the heads
+     of the Germans for this act. But it is utterly useless to do so,
+     and, if useless, then weak. A homely proverb says that you can
+     expect nothing from a pig but a grunt, and we know by this time
+     what to expect from our present enemy. Their standard of justice,
+     of manliness, of chivalry, is altogether diverse from ours, and
+     atrocities such as this done on Miss Cavell must simply confirm us
+     in our determination that it is our standard and not theirs which
+     is going to prevail in the world of the future. As one outrage
+     follows another the conviction grows the stronger that the world on
+     the Prussian model would be an intolerable place, and that every
+     man who loves freedom, mercy, and justice had better die than live
+     to see it so. The correspondence must be read in full. We shall not
+     attempt to discuss it in detail. In due course, as we most fully
+     believe, the blood of all those who have perished to slake the
+     brutal German thirst for dominion will be required at the hands of
+     the guilty. On the other hand, the name of Edith Cavell is
+     henceforth enshrined among the patriots and martyrs who have died
+     nobly for the honour of the Empire. May her relatives and friends
+     find comfort in that thought!'
+
+_The Daily Mail._
+
+     'The story of Miss Cavell's arrest, trial, and martyrdom is one of
+     those sublime tragedies which make the deepest appeal to the heart
+     of man. The facts cover the enemy with eternal infamy. The Germans
+     did to death a woman whose whole life had been dedicated to the
+     service of suffering man, for a breach of a barbarous law which
+     they themselves had imposed. All efforts to save her were in vain.
+     The German authorities tricked and attempted to deceive the United
+     States Minister at Brussels, who made the most persistent exertions
+     in her behalf. They evidently hurried on the execution in order
+     that no chance might baulk them of their prey. This is a deed which
+     in its horror and wicked purposelessness stuns the world and cries
+     to heaven for vengeance.
+
+     'Miss Cavell neither grieved nor faltered when she knew her fate.
+     She was happy, she said, to die for her country; and a life which
+     had been generously devoted to a noble work was crowned by an
+     heroic death. It is difficult to say what inspiration a nation does
+     not draw from such an example as hers, which lifts up even the
+     meanest and most selfish heart to new heights of unselfish love and
+     devotion. "To weep would do her wrong." Her life and death are
+     beautiful as those of the saints of old, and will move mankind like
+     immortal music or song. In the truest sense she may be said to have
+     died happy. Her country will never forget her. Her memory will
+     brace our troops in the hour of battle, and when the grey forms
+     close in the North Sea it will be there. Those who die thus have
+     won immortality.'
+
+_The Daily Chronicle._
+
+     'In a War which numbers its casualties by millions, and which has
+     witnessed holocausts of atrocity like the sinking of the
+     _Lusitania_ and the sack of Louvain, the murder of a single lady
+     may seem a small episode. But the enormity of a crime is not always
+     measured by the number of its victims. Here was a lady of education
+     who had devoted her life to the relief of human suffering. The head
+     of a great nursing institute, she had helped to train hundreds of
+     nurses, including Germans. When the War broke out she devoted her
+     whole strength to the care of the wounded, and had lavished her
+     personal attention on wounded German soldiers. Latterly she had
+     assisted certain British, French, and Belgian soldiers to escape to
+     England across the Dutch frontier. Charged with this military
+     offence, she admitted it with complete candour; indeed, she seems
+     to have been the principal witness against herself. One may safely
+     affirm that, having regard to her transparently humanitarian
+     motives and all the circumstances of the case, no Government in the
+     world but the German would have inflicted the death penalty on such
+     a culprit. They not merely inflicted it, but compassed its
+     infliction with a mixture of duplicity and brutality that must make
+     every decent human being's gorge rise. Of Miss Cavell herself no
+     one will dispute that if any death in this War has been heroic,
+     hers was; one cannot say less, and no one could say more. The sense
+     of the whole civilized world can be left to judge between this
+     helpless woman and her murderers.'
+
+_The Scotsman._
+
+     'That Miss Cavell was guilty of an offence against martial law was
+     not denied. But it was not a crime that implied any moral
+     delinquency or transgression of the normal rules of human conduct.
+     On the contrary, it was prompted by the spirit of self-sacrifice
+     and mercy that had guided her whole life, but of which not the
+     tiniest measure was yielded to herself by the men who pursued her
+     to the death. While it may be said that she acted imprudently, and
+     that punishment, and even severe punishment, for her offence was to
+     be looked for, she acted from motives and under circumstances that
+     could only raise her in the eyes of all who are capable of
+     appreciating generosity, courage, and kindness. No suspicion of
+     espionage was attached to her conduct; no accusation of that nature
+     was brought against her; and on being charged with what she had
+     done, she made full and frank acknowledgement. This candour of
+     confession was turned against her as one of the aggravations of
+     her offence. It is made but too clear that the tribunal before
+     which she was hurried thirsted for her blood and for the blood of
+     all who were concerned in the escape of those prisoners from the
+     tender mercies of the Brussels military authorities. Having already
+     lain for several weeks in prison, Miss Cavell was brought before a
+     court-martial, and after a two-days' trial was sentenced to death
+     in the evening and led out to execution early next morning. There
+     was a surreptitiousness as well as a vindictiveness about the whole
+     proceedings that cannot but amaze, as well as horrify and disgust.'
+
+_The Irish Times._
+
+     'If any one in Ireland still fails to see the necessity for
+     resisting to the utmost the extension of Prussian power in Europe,
+     this should open his eyes. It will be equally admitted by every one
+     but her executioners that her sex, her kindness to German wounded,
+     and her charitable intentions in committing the undoubted offence
+     against the law imposed upon Belgium by the conquerors should have
+     been regarded as good reasons for treating her with leniency. All
+     these considerations were ignored by the German authorities. Their
+     haste to accomplish the foul deed without possibility of
+     interference is not out of keeping with the worst that we know of
+     savage races. In utter contrast with their proceedings, there was
+     reported yesterday the hearing in a North of England town of an
+     appeal by a woman charged with attempted espionage against a
+     sentence of six months' imprisonment. The woman was of German
+     descent; she had sought information concerning a shell factory, and
+     she admitted that she would have passed it on to the Germans if
+     possible. Her trial was fair and careful, and she had the fullest
+     opportunity of securing legal advice at every stage. Her appeal was
+     patiently heard. So it is with every case of the kind, whatever may
+     be the nationality of the accused person. British justice has a
+     name throughout the world. Henceforth, so will German justice, but
+     the name will be of other significance.'
+
+_The Nursing Mirror._
+
+     'The heroic and tragic death of Miss Edith Cavell has placed the
+     martyr's crown on the head of this most courageous and patriotic
+     woman, and has consecrated afresh the whole of the nursing
+     profession for her sake in the eyes of the world. Never has the
+     heart of the nation been more deeply stirred than by this crowning
+     deed of infamy; never have the vials of its righteous indignation
+     been poured forth in such a torrent of just anger. The whole of the
+     civilized world has risen as one man to protest against this
+     violation of all the laws of mercy and of judgement against this
+     act by which Germany stands forth for all time alone, apart,
+     leprous and unclean, among the people of the earth. Her words to
+     the chaplain on the evening before her execution were those of
+     quiet courage and resignation. Spoken in the stern solemnity of
+     that prison cell, with the sincerity that comes from the nearness
+     of the eternal dawn, these words carry a force and conviction they
+     might otherwise lack to every one of her fellow workers round the
+     world, and are driven home to each heart like a nail fastened in a
+     sure place.... This day of national adversity is our day of
+     opportunity. In it may we be all "brave in peril, constant in
+     tribulation, and in all changes of fortune, and down to the gates
+     of death, loyal and loving one to another."'
+
+_The Lady's Pictorial._
+
+     'It is difficult to speak of the crime which has blotted the
+     already foul page of Germany's infamy in constrained language. The
+     whole civilized world stands aghast at the callous brutality and
+     deceit of the German officials in Brussels who have done to death a
+     noble Englishwoman; and words are impotent things in which to
+     express the horror, the disgust, the fury, that this brave woman's
+     murder has excited. Nor is it possible to deal in other than
+     conventional phrases with her splendid self-sacrifice. She has died
+     for her country, but she has also won the martyr's crown. Her love
+     for her country was boundless. To serve it she ran a risk the
+     gravity of which she fully recognized, and she freely admitted that
+     in so doing she had offended against military laws. We all know--it
+     is written for all time on the pages of history--how she paid the
+     penalty. There is no need to retell the shameful story, to extol
+     further her splendid heroism, to waste breath in execrating the
+     savages whose name is now besmirched beyond all cleansing; whose
+     blood-thirst has been slaked at the heart of a helpless woman. But
+     it is worth while--it cannot be too often repeated--to cry aloud
+     that Edith Cavell died that her countrywomen may live. Who dared to
+     ask what is one woman among the tens of thousands of men who have
+     perished for their country in view of all that this heroic nurse's
+     slaughter means to England? Dying in her country's service,
+     sacrificed to the savagery of the most treacherous, bestial,
+     merciless enemy against which civilized peoples have ever had to
+     fight, a victim to their lust of hate, she has left to Englishwomen
+     an example and a message which must surely stir them to follow her,
+     if need be, to death.'
+
+_The British Weekly._
+
+     'The Saxon name Edith, which is linked with the most ancient
+     glories of English history, has acquired a new lustre through the
+     sufferings of Edith Cavell. In every church on Sunday preachers
+     sounded the praise of the loving, gentle woman who was shot by the
+     Germans in Brussels in the dark of a mid-October night a few hours
+     before the fleet of Zeppelins started on their flight towards
+     London. Her only crime was that she furthered the escape from
+     Belgium of her countrymen and their Allies. The shield clasped for
+     their sake in her delicate hand was like the buckler of Arthur in
+     Spenser's poem, "All of diamond perfect pure and cleene," and
+     coming ages will see that it was hewn out of the adamant rock.
+     Amid the panoply of the martyrs her diamond shield will burn.'
+
+_The Catholic Times._
+
+     'Baron von Bissing, the German Governor-General of Belgium,
+     recently addressing a meeting of German women in Brussels, said,
+     "We must do our best to carry on here in Belgium a real German
+     'Kultur' work." He has just given the world a proof of what the
+     Germans can do for the promotion of "Kultur" in Belgium. It is a
+     proof which has brought home fully to civilized people the truth
+     that when the Germans are called barbarians there is no
+     exaggeration in the charge. The shooting of women is a relic of
+     barbarism abhorrent to the general feeling of the present day. The
+     execution of Miss Cavell brings into relief once more the main
+     characteristic of German warfare. Laws, civilized customs,
+     honourable traditions, must give way if they obstruct German
+     domination. A multitude of Belgians, male and female, have been put
+     to death with as much cruelty as was displayed towards Miss
+     Cavell. It is needless to say that by revealing their true
+     character during the War the Germans have been fighting most
+     effectively against their own cause. The horror excited by their
+     infamies is worth whole regiments of recruiting-sergeants. Not only
+     in the countries at war with Germany, but amongst the populations
+     of the neutral nations, it produces the firm belief that there
+     could be no greater enemy of popular rights than Germany, and that
+     the success of German "Kultur" work would blast civilization like a
+     deadly blight.'
+
+
+THE VOICE OF FRANCE
+
+The French Senate 'bowed with respect and profound emotion before the
+memory of this heroic martyr to duty, who sacrificed her life in the
+cause of patriotism and of eternal right'; and the French press glowed
+with magnificent tributes to the memory of the brave Englishwoman. One
+of the most striking articles was that communicated to _L'Homme
+Enchaîné_ by M. Clemenceau:
+
+     'It was necessary that Miss Cavell, symbolizing in her heroic death
+     and her simplicity an incalculable mass of awful butchery, should
+     rise from her tomb to show the Germans that every soul of living
+     humanity revolts with disgust against a cause which can only defend
+     itself by a most cowardly assassination.
+
+     'The profound truth is that she honoured her country in dying for
+     that which is the finest in the human soul--the conscience of a
+     grandeur of which the greater part of us dreams, and which only a
+     few of the elect have a chance of realizing. This was the lot of
+     Miss Cavell; driven to a wall by a detachment of riflemen, she was
+     walking without a complaint, without a regret, being already no
+     longer of this earth, when a physical faintness made her falter. To
+     me it only makes her appear greater, since, combination of strength
+     and weakness, she thus showed herself woman, purely woman, to the
+     end. "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"--"My God, My God, why hast
+     Thou forsaken Me?"--said Another on His cross, in a moment of
+     weakness and distress by which the splendour of His sacrifice was
+     increased.
+
+     'Edith Cavell did not speak a word; she fell. Thereupon an officer,
+     a representative gentleman of "Germany above everything," a
+     delegate of the Emperor, and, through the Emperor, of "the old
+     German God," carrying out his despicable task of butcher, calmly
+     drew near, placed his revolver at the temple of his victim, pressed
+     the trigger, and then, with his hand red with blood, signed to his
+     "men," if such I may call them, that the work of Germania was done.
+     We shall not forget the name of Miss Cavell, but we do not know, we
+     never shall know, the name of the other. He calls himself a
+     German--that is enough. Every other German would have claimed the
+     honour of carrying out the same task. Since the day of Joan of Arc,
+     to whose memory I know that the British will one day wish to erect
+     a statue, Great Britain has owed us this return. She has given it
+     nobly.
+
+     'Now the Eumenides are let loose--Miss Edith Cavell, murdered by a
+     coward, will live among the men of all ages and of all countries
+     with a life which, for a time of which one cannot foresee the end,
+     will bring shame and torment on the people on whom her blood lies;
+     and that the lesson may be lasting, I should like to see in Rome,
+     Brussels, Nish, Paris, London, and Petrograd, as an indestructible
+     memorial of a community of sentiment, a statue of this noble woman
+     and of the German officer. It would be sufficient to take as a
+     model the excellent drawing published by Abel Faivre in the _Echo
+     de Paris_, in which that fine artist has indicated in a few strokes
+     of sublime grandeur the nobility of the blessed victim, and,
+     without forcing anything, the features of the assassin.
+
+     'Those who come after us, and whose knowledge of the terrible
+     realities of these days will only be derived from cold,
+     dispassionate words, must have before their eyes an image recalling
+     the living facts: Edith Cavell and a Boche without name,
+     representative of a people which, feeling the weight of universal
+     opprobrium, has not found one spark of conscience from which to
+     utter one word of protest.'
+
+_The Journal des Débats._
+
+     'Miss Cavell died like a heroine, like a true worthy daughter of
+     England, the victim of those who would like to have killed her
+     country, and who revenged themselves on a woman. The murder of Miss
+     Cavell deserves to be avenged, and it will be, and in a manner more
+     terrible than the Germans dream of. The soul of England and the
+     soul of France are to-day united over the body of poor but glorious
+     Miss Cavell in a most sacred oath.'
+
+_Intransigeant._
+
+     'The German who cold-bloodedly, without even the excuse of the
+     passion of battle, judged, condemned, and executed Miss Cavell is
+     a monster, a being who has placed himself voluntarily beyond the
+     pale of human law. England, who has furnished us with so many
+     causes for gratitude since the beginning of the War, now offers for
+     our admiration a loyal, strong, and simple heroine. This winter at
+     the feast of Joan of Arc English officers brought flowers to her
+     statue. The French will not forget the great example of Edith
+     Cavell. She has entered the eternal light which shines on the
+     foreheads of heroines and martyrs. For centuries to come little
+     children will spell her name, and learn in the story of her life
+     lessons of courage.'
+
+
+DUTCH PROTESTS
+
+The German reign of terror just over their own borders the Dutch may
+accept as a menace and a warning to themselves; but the assassination of
+Nurse Cavell aroused the most emphatic denunciations of the crime.
+
+_The Amsterdam Telegraaf._
+
+     'Under the fatherly government of Bissing, the Belgians at present
+     have cause to envy the Parisians of 1793 in the Reign of Terror.
+     Not a person is sure of his life, and certainly not an honest and
+     brave person, for the German reign of terror seeks by frightful
+     examples to make the whole of Belgium a nation of traitors and
+     cowards. Love of country, which the Germans themselves claim to
+     honour as the highest virtue, they punish in the enemy as the most
+     frightful crime.
+
+     'In the last fortnight were pronounced ten sentences of death and
+     thirty-two of penal servitude for from ten to fifteen years. Among
+     these death sentences were four women. We wrote once in this
+     journal, "Holland is incapable of shuddering any more." We were
+     wrong. The death penalty on a brave woman has caused the whole of
+     this country to freeze with horror. Openly and unashamed Germany
+     makes herself a nation of outlaws against whom in the future every
+     possible measure of reprisal must be counted as warranted.'
+
+_Nieuws Van Den Dag._
+
+     'What poor psychologists German officials and officers seem to be!
+     They started with the request to the Belgian Government for free
+     passage; they then overwhelmed the neutral press with one-sided
+     reports regarding the _Lusitania_ case and the visits of Zeppelins
+     to undefended towns; finally, incidents of this sort! Everywhere
+     they betray a lack of the most elementary conception of
+     psychology.'
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+AMERICA'S VERDICT
+
+
+Apart from questions of common humanity, Americans are keenly interested
+in the tragical end of Edith Cavell because of the untiring services of
+the American Legation in Brussels, first to see that the accused had a
+fair trial, and, second, their desperate and heroic efforts to gain time
+in which to formulate a final appeal for clemency. The admiration of all
+true Americans must be excited by the account of the humane endeavours
+of their representatives, which lose not a jot because their appeals
+were made to a cold-blooded, ferocious tribunal that is a stranger to
+compassion, and does not subscribe to the ordinary decencies of
+civilized life and practice.
+
+The following press comments indicate the unanimity of the note of
+detestation with which America views one of the greatest crimes of all
+time.
+
+_New York Herald._
+
+     Under the heading 'Nana Sahib in Belgium' was foreshadowed the
+     national abhorrence which will hold Germany to be the moral leper
+     of civilization. Mr. Whitlock's report 'will cause a wave of horror
+     to sweep over the world at the possibility of a nation which is
+     capable of perpetrating such terrible deeds as a mere matter of
+     military routine succeeding in this War and dominating Europe.
+
+     'For the consolation of those weaklings who object to the execution
+     of Miss Cavell it is announced that the black act was done
+     according to German military law, and therefore "legal." So the
+     slayings in Louvain, Dinant, and other blood-soaked spots in
+     Belgium were in accordance with military law, and therefore
+     "legal." The sinking of the _Lusitania_ was therefore similarly
+     "legal." The desolation of Armenia was in accordance with Turkish
+     military law, and therefore "legal." The order of Herod, if
+     re-enacted by the military authorities of Germany, would be in
+     accordance with German military law, and therefore "legal." But the
+     civilized world would denounce it just as it denounced the Belgian,
+     _Lusitania_, and Armenian slaughters, and as it is denouncing the
+     execution of Miss Cavell.'
+
+_New York Times._
+
+     'In the great tribunal of civilization the Germans have done
+     themselves immeasurable hurt by their savagery against those who
+     opposed them. Putting the interests of State above the interests
+     and rights of the individual, putting the ends Germany seeks to
+     attain above all other things on earth, destroying the peace of the
+     world, bringing on the bloodiest War in history, a War that has
+     brought to their deaths millions of the people of Europe and
+     threatens to impoverish great nations, all for the attainment of
+     ends the world has denounced in themselves, and by means which too
+     often have violated the foundation principles of humanity and
+     justice, Germany has brought herself into a position where the
+     world turns from her in horror, and dreads nothing so much as the
+     success of her arms. Man's love of life, the chivalric sentiment of
+     man for woman, tender consideration for the helplessness of age and
+     of youth, all these she has maimed and bruised and defaced with her
+     mailed fist, all these she has trampled under foot. The execution
+     of Edith Cavell but carried out the spirit and purpose of the
+     Imperial military policy.'
+
+_The Sun._
+
+     'In spite of the manifestations of "frightfulness" with which the
+     record is already crowded, we are not willing to believe that
+     chivalry to women is dead in the German army. To the rank and file
+     von Bissing can never be a hero. Doubtless his monstrous deed will
+     be justified; nevertheless, it will sicken the soul of many an
+     honest German officer. And the German women--for woman is true to
+     her sex the world over--will deplore the fate imposed upon one who
+     was the victim of her sympathies. Never has there been a war in
+     which women have not played such a part as this Englishwoman did.
+
+     'Indeed, to all Germans who have not been corrupted by Prussian
+     militarism, the hurried, stealthy shooting of hapless Edith Cavell
+     in the dead of night behind prison walls will always be a bitter
+     memory. More than all the counts in the Bryce Report of atrocities
+     in Belgium it will weigh in the scale of judgement, for it has
+     struck the world with horror.'
+
+_The Tribune._
+
+     'Alive, Miss Cavell was but an offender against German military
+     rules; dead, dead after summary conviction, dead under
+     circumstances that give the incident the character of a midnight
+     assassination and the colour of an atrocity, she becomes to all men
+     of English blood a martyr and an inspiration to new patriotic
+     devotion.
+
+     'The thing is like the Zeppelin raids, it is like the Louvain
+     slaughter, it is like the _Lusitania_ massacre. The wrongs done to
+     the women and children of a race do not terrify the men. They only
+     serve to rouse the spirit, strengthen the arm, nerve the will.
+     "Terribleness" is but the emptiest of threats and the weakest of
+     weapons. There is something almost pathetic in the German dullness
+     to the things that move the world. It begs, whines, pleads for the
+     goodwill and the approval of neutral mankind. It stands almost as a
+     suppliant for the alms of approval of other races. But in the same
+     moment, without warning, without reason, without anything but an
+     incomprehensible stupidity and folly, it does something that shocks
+     the moral sense, the humanity, of men and women the world over.'
+
+_Philadelphia Public Ledger._
+
+     'The Administration has a duty in this matter which it should not
+     overlook. Miss Cavell, as a British subject, was under the
+     protection of the American Legation. The American Minister made
+     both an official and a personal request that her life might be
+     spared. This request was not only refused, it was treated with
+     contempt. Mr. Gibson's report is scrupulously restrained in
+     language, but his indignation may easily be read between the lines.
+     The sentence was carried out with a haste that emphasizes the
+     insults to the United States; the procedure from the beginning was
+     marked by insolence to its representatives. To let the matter drop
+     here would be a confession that this country can neither protect
+     its citizens' interests, nor those of other nations whose interests
+     it has undertaken to guard.'
+
+_The Baltimore Sun._
+
+     'It is difficult to speak in temperate language of the execution of
+     Edith Cavell. ... The world will pronounce this one of the
+     crowning atrocities of cold-blooded brutality. It is impossible to
+     think of it without horror, to speak of it without execration.'
+
+_The Chicago Tribune._
+
+     'The execution of Edith Cavell should and may be the cause of
+     mental awakening on the part of those who have hitherto remained
+     obstinately secure in the face of a world of terrors....
+     Civilization is breaking faster and faster. How far the sword and
+     torch will sweep no man can prophesy, but this we know--the
+     American nation has given to the German Empire an offence greater
+     than that furnished by Belgium, and has not as yet taken any step
+     to protect itself from retribution.'
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+CONCLUSION
+
+
+It may be urged against this simple chronicle of the life and death of
+Edith Cavell that an Englishman could be expected to approach the
+subject only in too heated and partisan a spirit to set forth the case
+dispassionately.
+
+There is no occasion to import factitious bitterness into the tragedy,
+which was born in prejudice, suckled in suspicion, and reared to its
+foul maturity on hatred. All the cogent and damning facts dealing with
+the arrest, trial, and death of the heroic Red Cross nurse are vouched
+for by the American Legation in Brussels; these facts are embodied in
+the statements communicated by Mr. Whitlock to Mr. Page for transmission
+to Sir Edward Grey, and may be read in the British 'White Paper,'
+_Miscellaneous No. 17_ (1915), entitled, 'Correspondence with the United
+States Ambassador respecting the execution of Miss Edith Cavell at
+Brussels.'
+
+The American Legation summed up the truth so far as the Germans would
+allow the truth to be made known--and it may be accepted that what
+details they permitted to escape from their net of secrecy and deceit
+would be only those that would enable them to put the best face on what
+they were pleased to consider merely a regrettable, but inevitable,
+incident of warfare.
+
+In this old world of ours, however, 'murder will out.' Whatever steps
+Potsdam cunning took to keep the secret in its own dark bosom, the
+enormity was disclosed to a scornful world, and the Germans found
+themselves in a common pillory upon which beat the fierce light of a
+merciless criticism and well-merited opprobrium.
+
+The German authorities may be safely left to the judgement of
+fair-minded peoples; and in passing it may be remarked that civilized
+communities have an inherent regard for justice, even when it operates
+to their own immediate disadvantage. It would be a sorry world if it
+were otherwise; how sorry a few nations who consigned their honour to
+the melting-pot can make it, we know only too well. It would be sorrier
+still but for the firm conviction that in the end right will triumph
+over might, justice will prevail over injustice, encouraging us to look
+forward to the time when 'Civilization smiles; Liberty is glad; Humanity
+rejoices; and Pity exults.'
+
+When the welter of blood and the ruinous dissipation of treasure is at
+an end, and we can appraise our tangible losses in life and money and
+endeavour to form some conception of the moral gains resulting from the
+conflict, amid the innumerable individual deeds that make us proud of
+those of our race the heroism in life and death of Edith Cavell will
+shine forth like a precious jewel.
+
+It is well to remember that 'of every tear that sorrowing mortals shed,
+some good is born, some gentler nature comes'; and in her death and the
+tears that we shed for it, the martyr leaves behind her an inestimable
+legacy that will yield rich dividends to humanize the souls of those who
+are left behind to admire and reverence the example of a noble woman.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When the foregoing paragraph was written, one's faith in the strength of
+our Empire and belief in the righteousness of our cause justified the
+sure knowledge that we had not witnessed the real conclusion of this
+pathetic soul-rending incident, that was without exact parallel in our
+varied Empire story; but one could only wait--and wonder.
+
+For three further searing years the war continued its desolating course,
+that entailed the death and mangling of millions of the combatants and
+the expenditure of uncountable wealth.
+
+The end came with dramatic suddenness that almost paralysed the
+suffering nations, who could scarcely realize that intense courage,
+energy, and determination had at length given the Allies the victory.
+
+Even while the Germans stood at the bar of justice at the Peace
+Conference, Mother Empire decided the time had arrived to take Edith
+Cavell to her own broad bosom; and the dust of one of the most gallant
+women of our race was brought from Belgium to be reinterred under the
+shadow of Norwich Cathedral, in the county that must ever be proud that
+it gave her birth.
+
+From Dover the body of Nurse Cavell came through Kent towards the
+capital; the orchards were in full blossom, the fields golden with
+buttercups, every bank blue and white with wild flowers, as if England
+had put on her richest garment to receive her own.
+
+From Victoria Station the funeral _cortège_ passed into the streets
+amid the wonderful stillness and silence of vast crowds, a tribute of
+silence that acclaimed the dead no less surely and splendidly than the
+living heroes of the war had been welcomed home by the heartfelt cheers
+of the multitude.
+
+To the roll of the drums, the stately tread of escorting Coldstreamers,
+the beautiful melody of funeral marches by the Scots and Welsh Guards'
+bands, the gun-carriage and its honoured burden came to Westminster
+Abbey, where, in the shadows of the dim old church, the first portion of
+the funeral ceremony was to be performed.
+
+A great congregation, representing all classes of society, had
+assembled, and the nursing profession and the various branches of the
+women's military services were largely in evidence. For fully half an
+hour the waiting gathering listened enraptured to entrancing and
+uplifting music of the Grenadier Guards' band.
+
+The last notes died away. Suddenly the assembly rose as Queen Alexandra
+was ushered to her seat. With her was Princess Victoria; and the King
+was represented by the Earl of Athlone.
+
+A few moments later the strains of Chopin's funeral march could be heard
+outside the Abbey, betokening the arrival of the _cortège_; and then
+beautiful voices echoed and re-echoed through aisle and transept as the
+choir met the coffin, which progressed slowly from the great west door
+towards the catafalque that waited to receive its noble burden. Tall
+Guardsmen bore shoulder high the coffin, covered with the Union Jack,
+which Edith Cavell had honoured with her life. To rest upon the glorious
+colours Queen Alexandra had sent a magnificent wreath of red and white
+carnations and arum lilies, to which an autograph card was attached upon
+which she had written:
+
+     In memory of our brave, heroic, never-to-be-forgotten Nurse Cavell.
+
+          Life's race well run,
+          Life's work well done,
+          Life's crown well won,
+             Now comes rest.
+                     From ALEXANDRA.
+
+The service was marked by severe simplicity that savoured nothing of
+exultation over a fallen foe; and yet there was the beautiful exultation
+that belongs essentially to the Church of England Order for the Burial
+of the Dead, which proceeded with tense emotion until the congregation
+and choir united in singing 'Abide with me.' The Dean pronounced the
+blessing.
+
+The Dead March from _Saul_ was played with all the poignant appeal of
+rolling and booming drums, wailing reeds, and the triumphant clangour of
+brass. The 'Last Post,' heralded by a roll of drums, commencing so
+softly as scarcely to be audible, swelled to a roar before it died into
+the silence, on which broke the bugles; and last the 'Réveillé.'
+
+Out of the shadows of the centuries into the sunlit street the
+flower-decked coffin was borne by the eight Guardsmen bearers to be
+replaced on the gun-carriage, which passed through the crowded City to
+Liverpool Street Station, _en route_ for Norwich, and every yard of the
+way there was evidence that the spirit of Edith Cavell was living in
+the throngs who mourned her loss, even as they honoured her sacrifice.
+
+Later in the day came the final scenes in the obsequies of Edith Cavell
+at Norwich Cathedral, where the ashes of the world-famous victim of an
+unchivalrous foe had come home for sepulture in an atmosphere of
+intimate and almost personal concern. The citizens turned out in tens of
+thousands. Every department of the civic life of the county was
+represented, but again the nurses were in the forefront of the picture.
+Wreaths came from near and far, and among not a few from Belgium was one
+inscribed 'Elizabeth, Reine des Belges.'
+
+The tribute of Empire had already been paid in London, and the closing
+ceremony was more in keeping with the sweet simplicity of her who was
+being laid to rest by the side of her mother amid the peaceful and
+mellow surroundings of the ancient Close, in a sequestered little corner
+called 'Life's Green.'
+
+At the graveside the Bishop of Norwich delivered a touching address, in
+which he dwelt more upon the manner of Nurse Cavell's death rather than
+the work of her life. In conclusion he said:
+
+    'Edith Cavell rests under the shade of our cathedral in its
+    eight-hundredth year, adding one more to the long line of those
+    blessed saints of God over whom it has watched in life and death. We
+    will think of her while her body rests in its keeping as herself
+    alive unto God and present with the Lord, and we will look on to the
+    glad day when she and we and all we love, having waited and watched
+    for the glory of the Resurrection, at last shall see
+
+         The splendour of the morning
+           Dawn on the hills.'
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Printed by the Southampton Times Company, Ltd., 70 Above Bar
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Noble Woman, by Ernest Protheroe
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+    A Noble Woman, The Life-Story of Edith Cavell, by Ernest Protheroe.
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+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Noble Woman, by Ernest Protheroe
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: A Noble Woman
+       The Life-Story of Edith Cavell
+
+Author: Ernest Protheroe
+
+Release Date: January 26, 2011 [EBook #35075]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A NOBLE WOMAN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Steven Gibbs, Richard J. Shiffer and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
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+</pre>
+
+
+<h1>A NOBLE WOMAN
+<br /><br />
+<small>The Life-Story of<br />
+EDITH CAVELL</small></h1>
+
+<p class="center">By<br />
+ERNEST PROTHEROE<br /><br />
+Author of 'In Empire's Cause.' &amp;c., &amp;c.</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<hr class="short tight" />
+<p class="center">'I will give thee a crown of life.'</p>
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<p><br /></p>
+<p class="center">London<br />
+THE EPWORTH PRESS<br />
+J. ALFRED SHARP,</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>First Edition, January, 1916</i><br />
+<i>Second Edition, September, 1916</i><br />
+<i>Third Edition, January, 1918</i><br />
+<i>Fourth Edition, May, 1918</i></p>
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<div class="center">
+<table class="toc" summary="toc">
+<tr><td align="right">CHAP.</td><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="right">PAGE</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">I.</td><td align="left">INTRODUCTION</td><td align="right"><a href="#I"><b>7</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">II.</td><td align="left">THE HEEL OF THE OPPRESSOR</td><td align="right"><a href="#II"><b>17</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">III.</td><td align="left">THE ARREST</td><td align="right"><a href="#III"><b>29</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">IV.</td><td align="left">SPINNING THE TOILS</td><td align="right"><a href="#IV"><b>37</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">V.</td><td align="left">THE SECRET TRIAL</td><td align="right"><a href="#V"><b>44</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">VI.</td><td align="left">THE FIGHT FOR A LIFE</td><td align="right"><a href="#VI"><b>52</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">VII.</td><td align="left">THE BLOOD OF THE MARTYR</td><td align="right"><a href="#VII"><b>63</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">VIII.</td><td align="left">IN MEMORIAM</td><td align="right"><a href="#VIII"><b>73</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">IX.</td><td align="left">BRITISH OFFICIAL REPROBATION</td><td align="right"><a href="#IX"><b>89</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">X.</td><td align="left">GERMANY'S CYNICAL DEFENCE</td><td align="right"><a href="#X"><b>99</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">XI.</td><td align="left">JUSTICE AND SAVAGERY CONTRASTED</td><td align="right"><a href="#XI"><b>108</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">XII.</td><td align="left">PULPIT AND PEN UNITE IN DENUNCIATION</td><td align="right"><a href="#XII"><b>114</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">XIII.</td><td align="left">THE LASH OF THE WORLD'S PRESS</td><td align="right"><a href="#XIII"><b>128</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">XIV.</td><td align="left">AMERICA'S VERDICT</td><td align="right"><a href="#XIV"><b>159</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">XV.</td><td align="left">CONCLUSION</td><td align="right"><a href="#XV"><b>167</b></a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="I" id="I"></a>I</h2>
+
+<h3>INTRODUCTION</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="sc">Edith Louisa Cavell</span> was born in 1866 at the country rectory of
+Swardeston, near Norwich, of which parish her father, the Rev. Frederick
+Cavell, was rector for forty years. In that pleasant sunny house the
+little girl passed her early days in uneventful happiness, for
+Swardeston had few interests apart from the obscurities of its own rural
+retirement.</p>
+
+<p>The rector, who was a kindly man at heart, but firm to the point of
+sternness where his duty was concerned, ruled his home with evangelical
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>strictness. His daughter Edith was a thoughtful child; and her
+unfailing consideration for others and her concern for their welfare
+caused her to be beloved by everybody. But the child's innate gentleness
+was tinged with a sense of duty remarkable in one of her years, which
+characteristic was the undoubted outcome of her father's precept and
+example.</p>
+
+<p>Edith Cavell's education was as thorough as her parents could contrive;
+and, apart from mere scholarship, her outlook was widened by being sent
+to a school at Brussels.</p>
+
+<p>When the Rev. Frederick Cavell died, the family removed from Swardeston
+to Norwich, and Edith decided to adopt the profession of nursing the
+sick poor. To that end on September 3, 1895, she entered the London
+Hospital as a probationer, and remained in that great institution for
+nearly five years. From the first, by her unselfish devotion to duty she
+endeared herself to her colleagues and patients alike. Part of the time
+she was staff nurse in the 'Mellish' Ward; and when the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> authorities
+sent her to Maidstone at the great outbreak of typhoid in that town, she
+did excellent work.</p>
+
+<p>Later, Miss Cavell was appointed to the post of night superintendent at
+St. Pancras Infirmary, where she remained for three years; then she
+migrated to Shoreditch Infirmary to act as assistant superintendent. As
+evidence of her more than ordinarily wide experience, it should be
+stated that for a time she worked at Fountain Hospital, Lower Tooting,
+under the Metropolitan Asylums Board; and for nine months she acted
+temporarily as matron of the Ashton New Road District Home, Manchester.</p>
+
+<p>In all these varied spheres of activity Nurse Cavell proved herself not
+only a capable nurse, but she became a clever, painstaking teacher, able
+to illustrate her eloquent lectures by means of her own facile and
+useful diagrams. Many nurses acknowledge their indebtedness to her lucid
+teaching, and are proud to claim their one-time association with one
+whose<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> devotion and energy made her an ornament of a noble profession.</p>
+
+<p>The sense of duty, which in the child was indicated so plainly, in after
+years developed into almost a religion. Every one with whom Miss Cavell
+came in contact speedily understood that she placed duty before either
+friendship or personal comfort. Her hospital training had taught her the
+value of discipline, and she would never tolerate inefficiency, or any
+tendency towards slackness, in her subordinates. As a surgical nurse her
+skill was remarkable; but her undoubted <i>forte</i> was the power of
+organization, which is almost rare compared to mere cleverness in the
+technical details of nursing.</p>
+
+<p>Her absorption in her calling and her outwardly stern and reserved
+demeanour sometimes caused Nurse Cavell to be misunderstood; but those
+who were fortunate enough to serve under her quickly came to learn to
+admire her, equally as a nurse and a kind woman. Her expressive eyes
+were an index to her overflowing sympathy; and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> her fellow nurses found
+themselves impelled to take their troubles and difficulties to her, sure
+of a patient hearing and tactful and sympathetic advice.</p>
+
+<p>In 1906 Miss Cavell was offered and accepted the position of matron of a
+surgical and medical home in Brussels, which had been founded by
+Monsieur de Page. This enlightened and enthusiastic Belgian doctor was
+impressed by the need of a better knowledge of hygiene and aseptic
+methods, of which through no fault of their own the nursing sisters in
+Belgium were generally ignorant.</p>
+
+<p>Nurse Cavell's new post was one that called for the utmost discretion,
+for she was an Englishwoman and a Protestant, engaging in work which
+hitherto was practically a monopoly of the Roman Catholic religious
+sisterhood. But even inborn prejudice, and in some cases positive
+enmity, could not long hold out against Miss Cavell's professional
+skill, backed up by her charm of manner; and in quite a short time she
+was as popular with the Belgian staff and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> patients as had always proved
+to be the case in her English experience.</p>
+
+<p>The establishment of a training school for nurses was a bold experiment,
+for Belgian women of good birth and education were accustomed to look
+upon earning their own living as a loss of caste.</p>
+
+<p>The English nurse was fully aware of the difficulties with which she had
+to contend, and resolutely set herself to combat them. Soon she had five
+pupils, who commenced their work on recognized lines. Their uniform
+consisted of blue cotton dresses, high white aprons with white linen
+sleeves to cover the forearm, which was bare beneath, 'Sister Dora' caps
+without strings, and white collars. 'The contrast,' wrote Miss Cavell to
+the <i>Nursing Mirror</i>, 'the probationers present to the nuns in their
+heavy stuff robes, and the lay nurses in their grimy apparel, is the
+contrast of the unhygienic past with the enlightened present. These
+Belgian probationers in three years' time will look back on the first
+days of trial with wonder.'<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>By April, 1908, the probationers had increased to thirteen; and by 1912
+the number was thirty-two. Some of the members of the staff were English
+nurses who had worked in the London Hospital or the Shoreditch
+Infirmary. They not only assisted in training the probationers, but also
+attended the private patients in the Nursing Home which was attached to
+the school.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Cavell's school met with the warm approval of the Queen of the
+Belgians, who was quick to realize the value of trained nursing in
+Brussels. When Queen Elizabeth broke her arm a few years ago she did not
+hesitate to have it attended to by the nurses at the Home. Her Majesty's
+action was an exceedingly valuable tribute to the institution and the
+Englishwoman at its head. It gave public opinion a lead that caused the
+School and Home to be viewed favourably, where, perhaps, hitherto the
+new departure had been deprecated, if only because it was considered to
+be an unnecessary rival of the nuns and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> lay nurses, who worked under
+religious vows.</p>
+
+<p>The Queen came to hold a very sincere regard for Miss Cavell, and it is
+certain that the feeling was reciprocated. Little did the royal patient
+and the English nurse then imagine that within but a few short years
+they would figure together in adversity, in their respective spheres, as
+two of the most pathetic heroines in modern history.</p>
+
+<p>Quiet and unassuming, yet determined and courageous, Nurse Cavell
+continued her good work, which was bound to have a marked effect on the
+future of the Belgian nursing profession. She herself declared that 'the
+spread of light and knowledge is bound to follow in years to come. The
+nurses will not only teach, as none others have the opportunity of
+doing, the laws of health and the prevention and healing of disease;
+they will show their countrywomen that education and position do not
+constitute a bar to an independent life; they are rather a good and
+solid foundation on which to build a career which demands the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> best and
+highest qualities that womanhood can offer.'</p>
+
+<p>In acting as directress of three hospitals, Miss Cavell found full scope
+even for her unusual organizing capabilities. In addition to her arduous
+lectures throughout the day, she gave four lectures to the doctors and
+two to the nurses every week. She always attended at the
+operating-theatre herself. One of her greatest pleasures was the
+children's ward, decorated in blue and white after her own design; she
+made a special point of visiting the little inmates every evening. The
+better class of Belgians paid for the services of the private staff of
+nurses, but the call of the poor never went unheeded.</p>
+
+<p>Although Miss Cavell was intensely happy in her work in Brussels, she
+always looked forward with positive joy to visiting her aged mother,
+with whom she spent every possible holiday in England. In the summer of
+1914 mother and daughter were enjoying one of these affectionate
+reunions.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly the great war-cloud burst.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> Edith Cavell was in her mother's
+garden weeding a bed of heartsease when she heard the news. She needed
+no heart-searching to decide where her duty lay; and, without
+hesitation, she returned hotfoot to Belgium, where she had an intuition
+that she would be wanted.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="II" id="II"></a>II</h2>
+
+<h3>THE HEEL OF THE OPPRESSOR</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="sc">When</span> Germany had disclosed her infamous designs against the neutrality
+of Belgium, followed by her declaration of war against France, succeeded
+in a few hours by the entry of Great Britain into the fray, Miss
+Cavell's intuition of trouble became an absolute and appalling fact,
+with the positive certainty that war's ghastly harvest would mean work
+for nurses in Brussels.</p>
+
+<p>Forthwith the Berkendael Medical Institute became a Red Cross Hospital,
+of which Miss Cavell was <i>directrice</i>, with a number of English and
+Belgian nurses under her charge. Others of her training staff and some
+of the school probationers<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> were in a board school, which had been
+rapidly converted into another hospital. Some of the nurses of the
+Training Institute were of German nationality, and these sorrowfully
+made a hasty departure for the Dutch frontier, carrying only hand
+luggage, which was all that they were allowed to take. Miss Cavell was
+sorry to have to send them away, but they would have been in a most
+invidious position if they had remained in an enemy capital towards
+which the German army was ruthlessly hacking its way.</p>
+
+<p>Although there was every indication of the extreme danger of Belgium,
+none could foresee the inexpressible agony that awaited her. How utterly
+Miss Cavell herself failed to realize the impending doom of the heroic
+little nation was shown in her letter of August 12, 1914, which she
+addressed to the Editor of <i>The Times</i>:</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>'Sir,</p>
+
+<p>'I notice that there is a big movement on for the establishment of
+Red Cross<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> Hospitals in England. In the natural course of things
+these will get almost exclusively naval men, whereas the army
+wounded will have to be dealt with on the Continent, and, as far as
+can be seen at present, mainly at Brussels.</p>
+
+<p>'Our institution, comprising a large staff of English nurses, is
+prepared to deal with several hundreds, and the number is being
+increased day by day. May I beg, on behalf of my institution, for
+subscriptions from the British public, which may be forwarded with
+mention of the special purpose, to H.B.M.'s Consul at Brussels?</p>
+
+<p>'Thanking you in anticipation, I am yours obediently,</p>
+
+<p class="author">
+'<span class="smcap">E. Cavell</span>,<br />
+'<i>Directrice</i> of the Berkendael Medical<br />
+Institute, Brussels.</p>
+<p class="ltr-addr">
+'Ambulance 53,<br />
+'Rue de la Culture, 149, Bruxelles,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;'August 12, 1914.'<br />
+</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>Probably Miss Cavell learned later that the big movement in England to
+which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> she referred not only provided for our wounded soldiers from
+France and Belgium, but also distant Gallipoli, when that region became
+embroiled in the almost world-wide War.</p>
+
+<p>Events moved with startling rapidity. It was on August 4 that the German
+troops commenced to swarm across the Belgian frontier. Liège was
+attacked with a fury and violence that fortresses hitherto considered
+practically impregnable could not withstand. Only eight days after the
+dispatch of her letter to <i>The Times</i> the heroic English nurse witnessed
+the entry of 20,000 Germans into Brussels.</p>
+
+<p>'News came,' she wrote to the <i>Nursing Mirror</i>, 'that the Belgians, worn
+out and weary, were unable to hold back the oncoming host.... In the
+evening (August 20) came word that the enemy were at the gates. At
+midnight bugles were blowing, summoning the civic guard to lay down
+their arms and leave the city.... As we went to bed our only consolation
+was that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> in God's good time right and justice must prevail.'</p>
+
+<p>Although Nurse Cavell was an Englishwoman, and her sympathies were
+claimed for the people within whose gates she had laboured for eight
+years, her great heart could feel compassion for the physical sufferings
+of the invaders, for the article continued: 'Many more troops came
+through. From our road we could see the long procession, and when the
+halt was called at midday some were too weary to eat, and slept on the
+pavement in the street. We were divided between pity for these poor
+fellows, far from their country and their people, suffering the
+weariness and fatigue of an arduous campaign, and hate of a cruel and
+vindictive foe bringing ruin and desolation to a prosperous and peaceful
+land.'</p>
+
+<p>From that date Nurse Cavell was cut off from the outside world.
+Enveloped in the fog of war, nothing was heard of her for eight months,
+although she had arranged to act as special correspondent to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>
+<i>Nursing Mirror</i>. Not until the month of April was another and last
+communication received. It was dated March 29, 1915, but was not
+delivered in London until seventeen days later, when it came to hand in
+a dilapidated condition and without any outward sign that it had
+undergone inspection by the Censor. The article cannot be quoted at full
+length, but a few paragraphs of it vividly depict the conditions of life
+under the iron heel of a relentless conqueror:</p>
+
+<p>'From the day of the occupation till now we have been cut off from the
+world outside. Newspapers were first censored, then suppressed, and are
+now printed under German auspices; all coming from abroad were for a
+time forbidden, and now none are allowed from England....</p>
+
+<p>'The once busy and bustling streets are very quiet and silent; so are
+the people who were so gay and communicative in the summer. No one
+speaks to his neighbour in the tram, for he may be a spy. Besides, what
+news is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> there to tell, and who has the heart to gossip?</p>
+
+<p>'I am but a looker-on after all, for it is not my country whose soil is
+desecrated and whose sacred places are laid waste. I can only feel the
+deep and tender pity of the friend within the gates, and observe with
+sympathy and admiration the high courage and self-control of a people
+enduring a long and terrible agony.'</p>
+
+<p>Edith Cavell had anticipated that there would be work for her in
+Brussels. She found it in abundance, first in nursing wounded Belgians,
+succeeded by an influx of suffering Germans, for the new authorities
+allowed her to continue her work; and in due course numbers of English
+and French soldiers came under her ministering care. And be it noted
+that to be wounded was a sure passport to the great heart of the English
+nurse. Even the injured invaders were tended with impartial care, in
+accordance with the great tenet of the Red Cross nursing creed, that
+suffering humanity shall know no distinctions, whether friend<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> or foe,
+their necessities calling for the same single-minded devotion.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Bertha Bennet Burleigh relates that she spent a pleasant half-hour
+with Miss Cavell, whom she met by chance shortly after the German
+occupation. In conversation the lady journalist learned that the nurses
+in the various nursing institutions had been requested to give an
+undertaking that they would also act as guards of the wounded. Miss
+Cavell said, 'We are prepared to do all we can to help them to recover
+from their wounds, but to be their jailers, never!' A German general
+smote the table with his clenched fist when the nurse gave her emphatic
+reply, but he could not cow her indomitable will. 'He looked,' Sister
+Edith afterwards told one of her colleagues, 'as if he would like to
+shoot me dead.' From that day onwards the German authorities commenced
+to deal harshly with the British Red Cross nurses who were in their
+power.</p>
+
+<p>There is evidence available to prove that many Germans had occasion to
+bless the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> good offices of Nurse Cavell; and from all who passed through
+her hands she won the most profound esteem, which in itself was a cause
+of offence to the German authorities, who knew that they themselves were
+just as cordially detested.</p>
+
+<p>But Edith Cavell's greatest offence lay in the fact that she was an
+Englishwoman, heroic daughter of the race that no specious promise or
+bribe could tempt from the path of honour; that could not view its
+treaty signature as a 'scrap of paper,' whose 'contemptible little army'
+had played a dramatic part in hurling back the Germans when Paris was
+literally in their mailed grasp; and that had succeeded in locking the
+once weak line of the Allies, which now forbade approach to the Channel
+ports of France from which a royal bully had proposed to attack the
+shores of England.</p>
+
+<p>Baron von Bissing had been appointed Governor-General of Belgium, and
+forthwith he had commenced to terrorize the inhabitants. Brussels was
+plastered with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> proclamations calculated to make life scarcely worth
+living. One of them in particular forbade any person to assist subjects
+of countries at war with Germany to leave Belgium.</p>
+
+<p>It is not quite certain whether Baron von Bissing ever came in personal
+contact with Miss Cavell, but it is positive that she became suspect to
+some of his emissaries, who promptly set about weaving a web for her
+undoing. It did not take long for clever German spies to ascertain that
+the English nurse had supplied British, French, and Belgian refugees
+with food, clothing, and money, and had connived, if not actually
+assisted, in their escape across the frontier into Holland.</p>
+
+<p>No purpose would be served by attempting to deny that there was in
+existence a Band of Mercy whose object it was to smuggle fugitives out
+of Belgium. The members of this secret organization included Prince
+Reginald and Princess Marie de Croy of Belignies, the Comtesse de
+Belleville, a French abbé, Mademoiselle Thulier, M. Philippe<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> Bancq, a
+Belgian architect, and others. It may be stated that the Princess is
+partly of English extraction, and her arrest caused the death of her
+English grandmother as a result of shock and subsequent illness. The
+Comtesse de Belleville belongs to the French nobility through her
+father, while her mother, the Vicomtesse d'Hendecourt, is Belgian. She
+spent much of her time in Belgium, devoting herself largely to
+charitable work, and when war broke out she came to the aid of her
+distressed compatriots.</p>
+
+<p>Nurse Cavell undoubtedly participated in these simple acts of humanity
+which the Germans construed into 'crimes.' She permitted her hospital to
+be used in the chain of rest-houses by means of which fugitives escaped
+detection and capture, as they were passed from point to point towards
+their golden enfranchisement across the Dutch frontier. Admittedly Miss
+Cavell did wrong in setting the German military law at defiance, but it
+was the policy of German 'frightfulness' that was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> her justification.
+The enemy army violated their own treaty obligations, and had plundered,
+burnt, slaughtered, and ravished a helpless people in a manner that had
+not been conceivable in this twentieth century. Edith Cavell's contact
+with wounded soldiers had afforded her first-hand information concerning
+the brutal atrocities of which the invaders were guilty, and doubtless
+gave rise to a passionate desire to enable any wounded British
+compatriot, Belgian or French friend, to escape from the common peril.</p>
+
+<p>For nearly a whole year Nurse Cavell continued her work, one supreme and
+unbroken test of the heroic spirit with which she was imbued. It was
+wonderful that her God-given befriending of refugees should have escaped
+detection so long; but at length the German Administration in Belgium
+verified some of the escapes of men from their iron thrall, and Edith
+Cavell was wrenched from her hospital by soldiers and put in prison.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="III" id="III"></a>III</h2>
+
+<h3>THE ARREST</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="sc">On</span> the evening of August 5 Nurse Cavell was engaged in binding lint on
+the wound of one of the invaders, when a peremptory knock on the door
+resounded through the quiet hospital. Not waiting for admission, half a
+dozen German soldiers burst open the door with the butt-ends of their
+rifles and entered the ward. Without preamble the corporal in charge
+seized Miss Cavell roughly, and commenced to drag her away from his
+wounded compatriot to whom she ministered.</p>
+
+<p>The Englishwoman did not quail before this uncouth representative of
+'Kultur,'<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> but with calmness and dignity demanded to know the reason of
+the brutal exhibition of authority. The bullying corporal's instructions
+evidently included nothing in the way of explanation. He considered a
+cuff to be the best means of meeting the situation; and forthwith he
+marched her through the gathering gloom to the military prison of St.
+Gilles.</p>
+
+<p>The German authorities made no public announcement of the arrest of the
+English nurse or any of her alleged associates. In all probability at
+first they maintained secrecy in the hope of being able to incriminate
+other suspects, and thus make a clean sweep of an agency that had
+attempted to lift by the fraction of an inch the iron heel that was
+grinding out the life of suffering Belgium.</p>
+
+<p>Three weeks elapsed before Edith Cavell's relatives in England heard of
+her arrest from a chance traveller who had come to England from Belgium.
+The news was communicated to the Foreign Office, and on August 26 Sir
+Edward Grey requested Mr.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> Page, the United States Ambassador in London,
+to make inquiry of the United States Minister at Brussels whether the
+arrest of Miss Cavell was an actual fact, and, if so, the reason
+assigned for it.</p>
+
+<p>In the interval the German authorities were hard at work in securing
+evidence, not merely to justify the arrest, but to provide plausible
+excuse for the execution of the prisoner, which later sinister mockeries
+of justice proved to have been a foregone conclusion from the
+commencement.</p>
+
+<p>It is believed that not only did German spies ransack Belgium for
+evidence, but some even visited Norwich to interrogate Miss Cavell's
+friends, to trace her movements, and, if possible, to intercept her
+correspondence. But even then the testimony against the prisoner
+aggregated but a sorry charge of presenting a great-coat to an ill-clad
+man, a glass of water to a thirsty pilgrim, and small coins to persons
+who were being hunted for their lives. There was a fear that these
+'crimes' would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> be insufficient to secure a conviction on a capital
+charge. There was no time to ferret out any real damning testimony, and
+so the jailers of the English nurse fell back upon the method of
+attempting to convict her out of her own mouth.</p>
+
+<p>It requires to be accentuated that Miss Cavell, apart from her
+profession, was a well-read woman. She knew more than a little of modern
+German philosophy, and had come to believe that the triumph of
+Prussianism would result in the collapse of Christianity. Once, when she
+was expressing some such view, a friend inquired whether it was prudent.
+'Prudent?' she exclaimed, with reproach in her eyes. 'In times like
+these, when terror makes might seem right, there is a higher duty than
+prudence.' And as she was a woman who would not count the cost of
+clinging to her standards, she was little likely to hide her opinions
+when confronted by the enemy.</p>
+
+<p>It is a prime feature of English justice that the veriest felon need not
+incriminate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> himself; nay, he is specifically warned that any statement
+he makes may be used as evidence against him. Practically he is reminded
+of the old legal axiom that a man who is his own lawyer has a fool for a
+client, with the consequent advisability to bridle his tongue against
+any unwise admission. The conception of German justice in Brussels was
+the converse, and the accusers of the Red Cross representative of a
+hated race deliberately laid snares for the extortion of the evidence
+they required.</p>
+
+<p>The course of procedure was terribly reminiscent of the methods of the
+old Spanish Inquisition. True, Miss Cavell was not subjected to actual
+physical torture, but the mental strain was calculated to break down
+anything in the nature of obstinacy. With diabolical cunning she was cut
+off from communication with the world outside the jail as completely as
+if she were dead, lest any whisper of warning to guard her tongue might
+reach her from outside; and often she had to face<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> interrogation by
+brutal and implacable enemies, who sought not to do her justice, but
+only to assure her condemnation.</p>
+
+<p>It is a comfort to believe that Miss Cavell's keen perception and her
+knowledge of German unscrupulousness enabled her to realize the
+inevitable end that awaited her, thus saving her from carking
+speculation that might have unhinged her reason. With Christian
+fortitude she grasped the inestimable boon of resignation, fully assured
+that 'death is the liberator of him whom freedom cannot release, and the
+comforter of him whom time cannot console.'</p>
+
+<p>Really the secrecy of her arrest and imprisonment and the precautions
+taken for her utter isolation were scarcely worth the trouble the crafty
+conspirators had taken, for Nurse Cavell took up a simple and heroic
+position that greatly simplified matters from the German standpoint. She
+was not an inexperienced girl, she was a noble woman of clever
+intellect, and had never been in doubt of the penalty she might incur by
+succouring compatriots<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> and friends in distress in defiance of the
+German military code.</p>
+
+<p>Inspired in her perilous work by the dictates of purest humanity, which
+has been the glory of women of all nations in all ages, she boldly
+avowed to her accusers that she had nothing to conceal. The last thing
+to have entered her mind would have been to attempt to mitigate her
+offence by lying; she would not even palter with disingenuousness. Not
+only did she admit the charges against her, but she related incidents
+about which her inquisitors had but the most fragmentary particulars, or
+even only flimsy suspicions. She did not hesitate to supply dates and
+details for which the spies had sought in vain.</p>
+
+<p>It is impossible to tell when Miss Cavell first became aware that a
+considerable number of her friends were under arrest. In any case during
+her long incarceration in prison and the numerous interrogations she had
+to undergo in order to elicit the admissions to construct the case
+against<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> her, she scrupulously avoided the implication of other persons.
+No brutality, no wheedling, no bribe, could ever have made that brave
+soul disloyal by word or deed to any of her associates.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV</h2>
+
+<h3>SPINNING THE TOILS</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="sc">The</span> Germans have asserted that Edith Cavell's arrest, trial, and
+punishment were necessary as a warning, especially to others of her sex,
+that enterprises conducing to the disadvantage of their army were
+punishable with death. It is sufficient commentary upon this claim to
+remember that Baron von Bissing caused the English nurse to be arrested
+in secret and tried <i>in camera</i>, when publicity was a prime necessity if
+her case was to act as a warning to others.</p>
+
+<p>The arrest took place on August 5, but the fact was carefully
+concealed&mdash;and the significant reason is not far to seek. Germany had
+agreed that all British civil<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> subjects in Belgium, so long as the
+German army occupied the country, were under the protection of the
+United States Minister. Baron von Bissing's paramount duty was to notify
+Miss Cavell's arrest without delay to Mr. Brand Whitlock, the American
+Minister in Brussels.</p>
+
+<p>This obviously honourable course found no place in von Bissing's
+villanous scheme of vengeance. If he could avoid it, he had no intention
+of allowing his English prisoner the benefit of neutral protection. But
+news of the arrest did in due course reach the American Legation, and
+Mr. Whitlock at once commenced to make inquiries, in which he was
+assisted by Mr. Hugh Gibson, his secretary, and Maitre G. de Leval, a
+Belgian advocate and legal adviser to the Legation.</p>
+
+<p>On August 31 Mr. Whitlock wrote to Baron von der Lancken, the German
+Political Minister in Brussels, asking whether it was true that Miss
+Edith Cavell had been arrested. If so, the reasons for the arrest were
+requested, and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> German judicial authorities were asked to allow M.
+de Leval to interview the prisoner and make arrangements for her
+defence.</p>
+
+<p>Baron von der Lancken having vouchsafed no answer to the American
+Minister, Mr. Whitlock reiterated his request on September 10, which
+elicited a reply that was delivered on the 21st. It was ominously
+suggestive that the Baron had dated his letter September 12, obviously a
+crafty subterfuge to palliate the delay, which was all part and parcel
+of a treacherous intention to deceive those who had the temerity to
+desire that justice be done to Nurse Cavell.</p>
+
+<p>The Baron's letter stated that the accused admitted that she had
+facilitated the departure from Belgium of British, French, and Belgians
+of military age. Her defence was in the hands of Advocate Braun, who was
+in touch with the competent German authorities. The missive ended with
+the statement that for M. de Leval to be permitted to visit Miss Cavell,
+so long as she was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> in solitary confinement, would be contrary to the
+principles of the Department of the Governor-General.</p>
+
+<p>Promptly the American Legation wrote to M. Braun, requesting him to
+attend at the Legation in order that he might afford details of the
+accusation made against his client, and further to consort arrangements
+for her defence.</p>
+
+<p>Although time was now pressing, seven weeks having elapsed since the
+arrest, Braun wasted several more days before he put in an appearance at
+the Legation, which certainly indicated no energetic interest in the
+unfortunate prisoner. This casual attitude became understandable as by
+degrees the German plot disclosed itself. It was amazing with what a web
+of deception the Department of the Governor-General considered it
+necessary to weave about one poor weak woman, evasions, chicanery, and
+callousness summing up a cold-blooded villany of purpose without
+parallel in the annals of any nation subscribing to the most elementary
+principles<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> of humanity, leaving justice altogether out of the question.</p>
+
+<p>Braun's next tardy step was to inform the American Legation that 'owing
+to unforeseen circumstances' he was unable to act further on behalf of
+Miss Cavell, whose personal friends had besought his assistance; but he
+had arranged for M. Sadi Kirschen, another Belgian lawyer, to defend the
+prisoner.</p>
+
+<p>There was thus a fresh delay while M. de Leval got into communication
+with Kirschen, a meeting with whom provided but very cold comfort. The
+legal adviser to the American Legation was astounded to learn that the
+prisoner's new advocate was ignorant of the details of the charges
+against her; for the German military code did not permit him to see his
+client before the trial, and he was not allowed to inspect any documents
+in connexion with the case.</p>
+
+<p>When M. de Leval announced that he himself would attend the trial,
+Kirschen strongly deprecated any such course. He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> asserted that the
+judges would not approve of the presence of a neutral spectator, and
+they might show their annoyance by delivering a judgement more severe
+than otherwise would be the case. M. de Leval, not desiring to prejudice
+the prisoner in any way, did not persist in his intention to be present
+at the trial. He had to rely upon Kirschen's statement that the tribunal
+would act with fairness, and that a miscarriage of justice was a very
+remote possibility. Kirschen further explained that these trials of
+suspects generally developed so slowly that, as the charges against Miss
+Cavell were disclosed, he would be able to elaborate the best possible
+defence.</p>
+
+<p>In view of later events it is evident that Kirschen was but a cog in the
+wheel of German 'rightfulness'; but at the time there was nothing in his
+demeanour or his expressions of opinion to cause one to suspect his
+genuineness. But it goes without saying that if M. de Leval had evinced
+the utmost determination to attend the trial,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> the Department of the
+Governor-General would have found means to prevent the presence of an
+unbiased spectator of their clandestine and insincere method of
+'justice.'</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="V" id="V"></a>V</h2>
+
+<h3>THE SECRET TRIAL</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="sc">The</span> trial of Edith Cavell took place behind an almost impenetrable veil
+of secrecy. A fortnight after the execution of the victim certain German
+newspapers printed an account that was mainly a brief for the
+prosecution, while the accused were put in as unfavourable a light as
+possible. Fortunately an eye-witness afterwards afforded M. de Leval
+additional details, by which we are enabled to picture the scene with
+tolerable certainty; and surely never since Joan of Arc faced the
+corrupt Bishop of Beauvais has the light of heaven looked down on a more
+merciless and brutal caricature of law and justice.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The secret court-martial was held in the Brussels Senate House, where
+thirty-five persons were charged with similar offences. The judges'
+names were not made public. Of the accused, the principal were Edith
+Cavell and Princess Marie de Croy, the Comtesse de Belleville and
+Mademoiselle Thulier, and M. Philippe Bancq. Prince Reginald de Croy did
+not stand his trial, for the simple reason that the Germans had been
+unable to lay hands on him. Armed guards had escorted the prisoners to
+the court, where soldiers with fixed bayonets stood between them.</p>
+
+<p>The court-martial was not likely to be a long and tedious affair, for
+the prisoners had been questioned and cross-examined <i>ad nauseam</i> long
+before this final stage, and in most cases the accused had signed
+depositions admitting their guilt.</p>
+
+<p>The outstanding figure among the prisoners was Miss Cavell, the typical
+Red Cross nurse, whom sick soldiers love and reverence, whose
+incomparable devotion to duty places her in the forefront of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>
+world's womanhood. She appeared in the uniform in which she had been
+arrested: the white cap covering the back of the head; the stiff collar
+around the neck; starched bow beneath the chin; and on her arm the Red
+Cross, the badge of her merciful mission.</p>
+
+<p>Even in a British court of justice perfectly innocent people are
+overawed by their surroundings, causing them to be self-conscious,
+nervous, and distracted at a time when cool collectedness should be the
+first line of their defence. But Miss Cavell knew that she was arraigned
+before unjust judges, who lacked the virtues of charity, sincerity,
+humanity, and probity, without which the exercise of judgement is a
+mockery and a sham.</p>
+
+<p>Her clear and expressive eyes looked out of a countenance that two
+months of close confinement had made deathly white. She was of the stuff
+of which martyrs are made. For what amounted to no more than a series of
+acts of womanly compassion she had become the sport of dire misfortune;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>
+but 'misfortune is never mournful to the soul that accepts it; for such
+do always see that every cloud is an angel's face.' Edith Cavell
+fearlessly looked about the court, viewing with evident curiosity the
+row of malevolent-looking officers in gorgeous uniforms, who occupied
+the judges' bench under the black Prussian eagle that is now the emblem
+of a nation's degradation. Occasionally her delicate features were
+illumined with a commiserating smile to encourage those who shared her
+own imminent peril.</p>
+
+<p>The case for the prosecution was that the accused were the principals in
+an organization that assisted British, French, and Belgian soldiers to
+escape from Belgium. It was alleged that fugitives were first smuggled
+into Brussels, where they were hidden either in a convent or in Miss
+Cavell's hospital. Later, as opportunity offered, they were disguised
+and conducted in tram-cars out of the city, and handed over to guides
+who led the way by devious routes to the Dutch frontier.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>When Miss Cavell was called upon to plead, she mastered her physical
+weakness, and serenely faced her accusers. In gentle accents she
+asserted that to the best of her belief she had but served her country,
+and, so far as that was wrong, she was ready to take the blame. Calmly
+she contemplated her end; cheerfully she was willing to be the
+scapegoat, in the hope that some at least of her friends might escape
+the dread punishment that she perceived would be her fate.</p>
+
+<p>She was interrogated in German, which an interpreter translated into
+French, with which tongue she was perfectly familiar. She spoke without
+trembling, and exhibited a clear and acute mind. Often she added some
+greater precision to her previous depositions. Her answers were always
+direct and unhesitating. When the Military Prosecutor inquired why she
+had helped soldiers to go to England, the reply came promptly: 'If I had
+not done so they would have been shot. I thought I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> was only doing my
+duty in saving their lives.'</p>
+
+<p>'That may be true so far as British soldiers were concerned,' agreed the
+interlocutor, 'but it did not apply to young Belgians. Why did you help
+them to cross the frontier, when they would have been perfectly free and
+safe in staying here?'</p>
+
+<p>Miss Cavell treated this question with the silent contempt it deserved.
+She knew only too well what freedom and safety had been accorded to many
+Belgians of military age who had been found in their own desecrated
+fatherland.</p>
+
+<p>She not only admitted that she had assisted refugees to escape, but she
+acknowledged that she had received letters of thanks from those who had
+reached England in safety. This was a vital admission. German evidence
+alone could have charged her with an 'attempt' to commit the crime, but
+the letters of thanks conclusively proved that she had 'committed' the
+offence.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Among the other prisoners, M. Philippe Bancq was equally fearless.
+Without a quaver he admitted that he had assisted young Belgians to
+escape and rejoin their army. 'As a good Belgian patriot,' said he, 'I
+am ready to lay down my life for my country.'</p>
+
+<p>The Military Prosecutor demanded that the death penalty be passed upon
+Nurse Cavell and eight other prisoners. Whether the Englishwoman's
+compassionate conduct that was her offence and her heroic bearing under
+trial made an impression on her judges, one cannot tell. Their apparent
+disagreement may only have been a theatrical adjunct to the tragedy
+which Baron von Bissing had staged with consummate care. It may have
+been that they lacked the moral courage to pronounce sentence in her
+presence. In any case, judgement was postponed. In an ordinary trial
+this respite would have given play to hope, the miserable man's god,
+which keeps the soul from sinking in despair.</p>
+
+<p>But hope could neither flatter nor deceive<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> Edith Cavell as she was led
+back under escort to her cell to wait&mdash;to wait for the assured
+condemnation that her eyes of courage must have perceived at the end of
+the cul-de-sac of German infamy.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI</h2>
+
+<h3>THE FIGHT FOR A LIFE</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="sc">The</span> trial had occupied two days, and had ended on Friday, October 8. M.
+Kirschen had promised to keep M. de Leval informed how the matter was
+proceeding. He duly notified the date of the trial; but in thorough
+keeping with what had gone before, during the two days' progress of the
+inquiry he made no sign. He did not disclose that the Military
+Prosecutor had asked for the death penalty; he maintained silence even
+when the sentence was promulgated. Thus he was a party to cutting off
+the unhappy prisoner from the only friends who could bring powerful
+influence to bear upon the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> authorities for a revision of the sentence.
+Kirschen not only did not communicate with M. de Leval, but he
+disappeared entirely after the trial.</p>
+
+<p>It is placed on record by one present in court that Kirschen pleaded
+well for his client, but it is doubtful if it were more than a formal
+plea for mercy for one who was prejudged and her fate already sealed.
+That Kirschen is believed to be an Austrian by birth, although a
+naturalized Belgian, doubtless explains much that for a time had
+mystified the officials of the American Legation. It makes one's gorge
+rise to think that while the German conspirators pretended to allow the
+prisoner a friendly advocate, he was in reality a hideous travesty, a
+hypocritical cat's-paw of the Department of the Governor-General.</p>
+
+<p>After the perpetration of the crime M. Kirschen informed a sceptical
+world that he was not of Austrian origin, but was born at Jassy, in
+Roumania. He also denied that he promised to inform the American
+Legation about the sentence, and,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> in fact, did not know until it was
+announced publicly. It need only be commented that M. de Leval's letters
+to his chief are in emphatic contradiction, and there is no doubt whose
+word is worthy of credence.</p>
+
+<p>Failing to find M. Kirschen or learn any news of him, on Sunday night M.
+de Leval went to see Baron von der Lancken. The Baron was out, and Mr.
+Conrad, a subordinate, was unable to give any information.</p>
+
+<p>On Monday morning M. de Leval was informed by Conrad that the American
+Legation would be made acquainted with the judgement immediately it was
+pronounced, at the same time volunteering the assurance that it need not
+be expected for 'a day or two.'</p>
+
+<p>M. de Leval did not propose to rely upon any German assurances, and,
+further, was bent upon learning some of the details of the trial. In
+view of M. Kirschen's continued silence, he called at the house of the
+advocate at 12.30, but was informed that he would not be at home until
+late in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> afternoon. He therefore proceeded to the house of another
+lawyer, who had been interested in one of Miss Cavell's fellow
+prisoners, but failed also to find that gentleman. However, he called
+upon M. de Leval a few hours later, and reported that he had heard that
+judgement would be passed on Tuesday morning. He also said that he had
+good grounds for believing that the sentence of the court would be
+severe for all the prisoners.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile repeated telephonic inquiries were made by the American
+Legation at the Politische Abteilung (Political Department), and upon
+each occasion it was stated that sentence had not been pronounced; and
+this was the reply as late as 6.20, together with the renewed promise to
+afford the required information as soon as it came to hand. And so the
+day dragged on.</p>
+
+<p>Yet the death sentence had been passed at five o'clock in the afternoon,
+and the execution of Miss Cavell was fixed for the same night! Not until
+8.30 p.m. did the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> American Legation learn from a reliable outside
+source that sentence had been passed, and the execution would probably
+take place at two o'clock in the morning. Thus the American Minister was
+hoodwinked up to almost the last moment. The same fiendish mind that had
+engineered the secret arrest and the trial <i>in camera</i> had deliberately
+jockeyed the Legation out of anything like the time required for taking
+the requisite steps to secure the deferring of the execution, pending an
+appeal in the highest quarters for clemency.</p>
+
+<p>At this critical juncture Mr. Brand Whitlock was ill in bed; but,
+nevertheless, with Mr. Hugh Wilson, he threw himself into the task of
+attempting to save Miss Cavell's life, although the brief time at their
+disposal afforded but a slender chance of success. In a letter already
+prepared for dispatch to Baron von der Lancken, it was pointed out that
+the condemned Englishwoman had been treated with more severity than had
+been the result in other similar cases, although it was only her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> own
+commendable straightforwardness that enabled the charges against her to
+be proved. It was urged that she had spent her life in alleviating the
+sufferings of others, and at the beginning of the War she had bestowed
+her care as freely on German soldiers as on others. Her career as a
+servant of humanity should inspire the greatest sympathy and call for
+pardon. A letter in identical terms was addressed to Baron von Bissing.</p>
+
+<p>Apart from what may be termed these strictly official communications,
+the Minister directed a touching personal appeal to Baron von der
+Lancken that was calculated to move the heart of a Bashi-Bazouk.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>'My dear Baron,</p>
+
+<p>'I am too ill to present my request in person, but I appeal to the
+generosity of your heart to support it and save this unfortunate
+woman from death. Have pity on her!</p>
+
+<p class="ltr-closing">'Yours sincerely,</p>
+<p class="author">'<span class="smcap">Brand Whitlock</span>.'</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>That this poignant intercession failed in its purpose is indubitable
+proof, if further testimony were necessary, that the Prussian model of
+manliness is utterly devoid of chivalry, and that blood-lust takes the
+place of the ordinary dictates of humanity.</p>
+
+<p>Forthwith Mr. Gibson and M. de Leval sought out the Marquis de
+Villalobar, the Spanish Ambassador, and together the anxious trio
+proceeded to the house of Baron von der Lancken. Not only was the Baron
+not at home, but no member of his staff was in attendance, which
+suggests even to the most charitable chronicler that the visit had been
+anticipated. An urgent message was sent after the Baron, with the result
+that he returned home a little after ten o'clock, and was shortly
+followed by two members of his staff.</p>
+
+<p>When the circumstances necessitating the visit were explained to Baron
+von der Lancken, he professed to disbelieve that the death sentence had
+been passed, and asserted that in any case there would be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> no execution
+that night, and that the matter would lose nothing by waiting until the
+morning. But the neutral diplomatists were too hot upon the trail of
+German trickery and prevarication to permit of the desired
+procrastination; they were ambassadors in mercy rather than mere
+politics, and they firmly insisted upon the Baron instituting immediate
+inquiries. He retired to engage in telephonic communication with the
+presiding judge of the court-martial, doubtless not to seek for
+information, but to condole with each other upon the disclosure of their
+cunning scheme to these pestering neutrals, whose interference they had
+exercised their ingenuity to avoid.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly the Baron returned and admitted to his visitors that their
+information was correct, whereupon Mr. Gibson presented the letters
+appealing for delay in execution of the sentence, and at the same time
+he verbally emphasized every conceivable point that might assist to gain
+even the most temporary respite; and in these<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> representations the
+Spanish Minister lent all the support at his command.</p>
+
+<p>Baron von der Lancken informed them that in these matters the supreme
+authority was the Military Governor; that the Governor-General had no
+authority to intervene; and that appeal could be carried only to the
+Emperor, and only in the event of the Military Governor exercising his
+discretionary power to accept an appeal for clemency.</p>
+
+<p>Upon the urgent appeal of the neutral diplomatists Baron von der Lancken
+agreed to speak to the Military Governor on the telephone. He was absent
+half an hour, and upon his return stated that he had been to confer
+personally with the Military Governor, who declared that the sentence
+upon Miss Cavell was the result of 'mature deliberation,' and that the
+circumstances in her case rendered 'the infliction of the death penalty
+imperative.'</p>
+
+<p>The Baron's attitude was that of absolute finality, and in signification
+of the end of the interview he asked Mr. Gibson to take<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> back the note
+which he had presented to him. This apparently simple request was
+typical of the subtleties of Teutonic diplomacy, which cynically
+repudiates its own 'scraps of paper,' and consequently cannot be
+expected to hold those of others in very high esteem. Astute as Baron
+von der Lancken may have imagined himself to be, his idea is patent to
+an ordinarily unsophisticated mind, which not unnaturally, albeit
+ungenerously, infers that at some time in the future the Baron may
+desire to deny that he had received the written appeal of the American
+Minister, which would be borne out by its absence from the official
+archives. He is welcome to any satisfaction that the preparation for
+mendacity may afford an atrophic conscience and a mental attitude that
+is foreign to honourable diplomacy.</p>
+
+<p>For an hour longer the visitors argued and pleaded, only to be informed
+very positively that 'even the Emperor himself could not intervene'; but
+even then Mr. Gibson and the Marquis de Villalobar<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> continued to make
+fresh appeals for delay. Finally the Spanish Minister drew Baron von der
+Lancken aside in order to express some forcible opinions that he
+hesitated to say in the presence of the Baron's subordinates and M. de
+Leval, a Belgian subject; and in the meantime Mr. Gibson and M. de Leval
+argued desperately with the younger officers&mdash;but all in vain.</p>
+
+<p>Edith Cavell was doomed to death by that same tyranny that had
+consummated the horrors of Louvain, that had heaped up atrocity upon
+atrocity to appal all Christendom. As the bells of the city chimed the
+midnight hour the victims' friends returned in despair to the American
+Legation.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE BLOOD OF THE MARTYR</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="sc">At</span> eleven o'clock that same night, while Mr. Gibson and the Marquis de
+Villalobar were expostulating with Baron von der Lancken, the Rev. H. S.
+T. Gahan, the British Chaplain in Brussels, entered the cell in which
+Nurse Cavell had spent the last ten weeks of her life.</p>
+
+<p>Even in that supreme hour when she was being hurried to the grave by her
+implacable foes, she knew no fear. She was calm and resigned. Upon her
+gentle lips was no execration of her enemies, but only sentiments that
+make us infinitely proud of her, that shall be repeated by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> generations
+yet unborn, that shall endure in our national affection and reverence as
+long as British tongues have speech and words have meaning.</p>
+
+<p>In his report to the American Legation Mr. Gahan said that Nurse
+Cavell's first words were concerned with a matter concerning herself
+personally, 'but the solemn asseveration which accompanied them was made
+expressly in the light of God and eternity.' In expressing the wish for
+all her friends to know that she willingly gave her life to her country,
+she said, 'I have no fear nor shrinking; I have seen death so often that
+it is not strange or fearful to me.' She further said, 'I thank God for
+this ten weeks' quiet before the end. Life has always been hurried and
+full of difficulty. This time of rest has been a great mercy. They have
+all been very kind to me here. But this I would say, standing as I do in
+view of God and eternity, I realize that patriotism is not enough. I
+must have no hatred or bitterness towards any one.'</p>
+
+<p>When the chaplain administered the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> Holy Communion, she received the
+gospel message of consolation with all her heart; and when he repeated
+the words of the hymn 'Abide with me,' Miss Cavell softly joined in the
+last verse:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Heaven's morning breaks, and earth's vain shadows flee;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Afterwards the chaplain and Miss Cavell quietly conversed until the
+jailer intimated that the interview must end. She then gave him final
+parting messages for relatives and friends. 'She spoke of her soul's
+need at the moment, and she received the assurance of God's word as only
+the Christian can do'; and when he bade her 'good-bye' she smiled and
+said, 'We shall meet again.'</p>
+
+<p>Early in the morning Miss Cavell was led out to execution. As there is
+no official account of her last moments, we at first had to rely chiefly
+upon the report of the Amsterdam <i>Telegraaf</i>, a thoroughly reliable and
+influential journal; but later, additional<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> details were available from
+various accredited sources. The <i>Telegraaf</i> records that the soldiers of
+the shooting party were greatly impressed by the courage and fortitude
+of the nurse, and much distressed at their enforced participation in a
+dastardly crime. Each individual soldier purposely aimed high so that he
+might not have the murder on his conscience. The whole firing party thus
+being impelled by the same humane motive, the volley left the victim
+standing unharmed.</p>
+
+<p>Only in that dread moment did her physical strength refuse to respond
+further to her sublimely heroic spirit. She swooned and fell; and the
+officer in charge of the soldiers stepped forward and shot her through
+the head, close to the ear, as she lay mercifully unconscious of her
+surroundings.</p>
+
+<p>Whether it be true or not that the soldiers acted as described, one
+would like to believe it, if only because it would afford some
+satisfaction to think that the German rank and file can be stirred by
+humane<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> impulses to which their superiors are strangers. The rough
+soldiers would appear as veritable angels compared to Baron von Bissing
+and von der Lancken, his companion in crime. These ruffians consigned
+themselves by their conduct to everlasting loathing and contempt; to
+satisfy their rabid hate of England they proved themselves worthy peers
+of Judge Jeffreys, Robespierre, Nana Sahib, and other unnatural
+monsters.</p>
+
+<p>Six weeks after the grim tragedy three of Miss Cavell's friends returned
+to England from Belgium, and several of their statements correct
+previous errors. One of these ladies saw Miss Cavell in prison a few
+days before the end, but by that time the secrecy and isolation from all
+advice had accomplished all that her jailers desired. The visitor says
+that during the interview Miss Cavell was quite herself, wonderfully
+calm, and preferred to talk on ordinary topics. Originally it was stated
+that the execution took place at 2 a.m. in the prison of St. Gilles, but
+Miss Wilkins, who took over the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> management of the hospital after Miss
+Cavell's arrest, was at the prison at five o'clock on the morning of the
+12th. She was just in time to see her friend being conducted to the
+motor-car in which she was to be driven to the Tir National, two miles
+out of Brussels, which was the selected place of execution. She walked
+firmly, and, from the expression of her face, she was serene and
+undisturbed.</p>
+
+<p>The German military chaplain was with her at the end, and afterwards
+gave her poor body Christian burial. He told Mr. Gahan that 'she was
+brave and bright to the last. She professed her Christian faith, and
+that she was glad to die for her country.' 'She died like a heroine.'</p>
+
+<p>But the German chaplain did not inform Mr. Gahan that, accustomed as he
+was to painful death scenes, the brutal end of the gentle victim so
+horrified him that he himself sank to the ground in a dead faint&mdash;a
+weakness that stands to the credit of his heart and calling.</p>
+
+<p>The Rev. H. S. T. Gahan was sent to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> Brussels by the Colonial and
+Continental Church Society only a few months before the outbreak of the
+War. He was imprisoned for a few days in November, 1914, but was
+released when the Americans represented that they required a clergyman.
+All other British men were deported, but many British women and children
+remain in Brussels. Many of those who have contrived to escape from the
+stricken capital testify to the help and kindness and sympathy of the
+British chaplain.</p>
+
+<p>It has been asserted that by her own request Miss Cavell was permitted
+to face her executioners with unbandaged eyes and unbound hands. But
+more than that, according to later information, the Germans, with one of
+their acute refinements of cruelty, allowed her to witness the execution
+of M. Bancq, and it was this sight, more than fear of her own end, that
+caused her to collapse.</p>
+
+<p>The only announcement of Miss Cavell's death received by her friends and
+pupils was through a poster displayed on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> walls of Brussels baldly
+announcing that the execution had taken place; and letters which were
+addressed to them the day before she died were not delivered until a
+month afterwards.</p>
+
+<p>The body of the martyr was buried by her enemies near the prison of St.
+Gilles. Mr. Whitlock, on behalf of the First President of the Brussels
+Court of Appeals and President of the Belgian School of Certificated
+Nurses, asked Baron von der Lancken for the body of Miss Cavell, its
+directress. It was undertaken, in the removal of the body and its burial
+in the Brussels district, to conform to all the regulations of the
+German authorities. Mr. Whitlock remarked that he felt sure that His
+Excellency would make no objection to the request, and that the
+institution to which Miss Cavell had generously devoted a part of her
+life would be permitted to perform a pious duty. Baron von der Lancken
+did not send a written reply, but called upon Mr. Gibson in person. He
+stated that under the regulations governing such cases it was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>
+impossible to exhume the body without written permission from the
+Minister of War in Berlin. Thus the Germans took the opportunity of
+crowning their foul deed with the final dishonour of a refusal of even
+such a last pitiful request.</p>
+
+<p>Really it is immaterial where Edith Cavell's body may be laid to rest,
+although sentiment may demand its ultimate recovery. Her memory will
+lack nothing. It is enshrined in glowing effulgence in the hearts of
+Britons and our Allies for all time.</p>
+
+<p>Although our story is the record of Edith Cavell, we can spare a thought
+for her heroic companions. M. Philippe Bancq declared his willingness to
+die for his country, and the Germans took him at his word. Princess
+Marie de Croy was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment; but the Comtesse
+de Belleville and Mademoiselle Thulier were condemned to death. Upon
+strong representations made by the King of Spain and the Pope, however,
+the German Emperor hastened to pardon these two ladies, because he was
+aware of the universal horror<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> caused by the deliberate political murder
+of Miss Cavell. Von Bissing, too, evidently was warned by the Kaiser to
+moderate his bloodthirstiness, as evidenced by a promise of their lives
+to all British and French soldiers still hidden in Belgium if they
+surrendered without delay. Verily, it was speedily proved that Nurse
+Cavell had died that others might live&mdash;and it is not always the case
+that even the greatest sacrifices bear so speedy a fruit.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>VIII</h2>
+
+<h3>IN MEMORIAM</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="sc">It</span> is almost impossible to express how deeply the heart of the nation
+was stirred by the crowning deed of infamy signalized in the tyrannous
+execution of Edith Cavell; and all classes, from the highest to the
+lowest, were desirous of testifying their admiration of one whose
+devotion to duty and consecrated death will ever be an inspiration to
+our race.</p>
+
+<p>The following message was dispatched from the King and Queen to Mrs.
+Cavell, the stricken mother of the dead heroine:</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="ltr-date">
+'<span class="smcap">Buckingham Palace</span>,<br />
+'<i>October 23, 1915</i>.</p>
+
+<p>'Dear Madam,&mdash;By command of the King and Queen I write to assure
+you that the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> hearts of their Majesties go out to you in your
+bitter sorrow, and to express their horror at the appalling deed
+which has robbed you of your child. Men and women throughout the
+civilized world, while sympathizing with you, are moved with
+admiration and awe at her faith and courage in death.</p>
+
+<p>'Believe me, dear Madam, yours very truly,</p>
+
+<p class="author">'<span class="smcap">Stamfordham</span>.'</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>Queen Alexandra's letter, through the medium of the Rector of
+Sandringham, ran as follows:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>'I am commanded by Her Majesty Queen Alexandra to write and say how
+deeply Her Majesty feels for you in the sad and tragic death of
+your daughter. Her Majesty views the unheard-of act with the utmost
+abhorrence; no words of mine are in any way adequate to express the
+deep feelings of Her Majesty as she spoke to me of Miss Cavell's
+death. Her Majesty's first thought was of you, and I was to tell
+you how<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> deeply, very deeply, Her Majesty sympathizes with you.
+"Her poor, poor mother. I go on thinking of her," were Her
+Majesty's words. The women of England are bearing the greatest
+burden of this terrible War, but by all the name of Miss Cavell
+will be held in the highest honour and respect. We shall always
+remember that she never once failed England in her hour of need.
+"May God bless and comfort you!" is the prayer of Her Majesty.'</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Naturally the tragic death of their heroic sister went like a
+trumpet-blast through the ranks of the nursing profession, and the
+following letter of sympathy addressed to Mrs. Cavell from the President
+and Council of the Royal British Nurses' Association was signed by
+Princess Christian herself:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>'We, the President and Council of the Royal British Nurses'
+Association, desire to express the warm and heartfelt sympathy of
+the whole Association with you in the bereavement which has fallen
+on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> you in such tragic circumstances. Your daughter's heroic death
+is one which will always remain a lasting memorial to devotion,
+courage, and self-sacrifice, and her name will ever be remembered
+among those heroes who have laid down their lives for their
+country.'</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Of the condolences from abroad a few examples must suffice. M. Cambon,
+the French Ambassador in London, received from the Committee of Foreign
+Affairs of the Chamber of Deputies the following telegram for
+transmission to the House of Commons:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>'The Chairman and Members of the Committee of Foreign Affairs of
+the Chamber of Deputies, deeply moved by the tragic fate of Miss
+Cavell, desire to offer to the members of the House of Commons the
+expression of the respect and admiration which they feel for the
+noble heroine of British patriotism, and beg the House of Commons
+to accept, on behalf of themselves<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> and of their colleagues, their
+message of grief and indignation.'</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Acting under the instructions of his Government, the Belgian Minister
+telegraphed to Mrs. Cavell:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>'The Belgian Government shares with emotion and respect in your
+grief. Our entire population to-day associates in a universal
+sentiment of admiration and gratitude the name of Miss Cavell with
+that of the many Belgian women who have already fallen martyrs to
+German barbarism, and from whose innocent blood will arise new
+heroism for the defence of civilization.'</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">A Great Memorial Service.</span></h3>
+
+<p>London in particular, and the nation in general, laid its wreath of
+prayer around the bier of Edith Cavell in a great memorial service held
+in St. Paul's Cathedral on October 29, 1915. It was a fitting and
+touching token of affection and admiration<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> of one of our greatest
+national heroines, solemnly performed in one of the most sacred of our
+national shrines.</p>
+
+<p>The morning found London enshrouded in blue-grey mist; but at eleven
+o'clock, the time of service, the weather-worn old sanctuary commenced
+to gleam in pale sunshine, as if it were a halo from the glorious dead
+to lighten the gloom of the sorrowing multitude.</p>
+
+<p>St. Paul's Cathedral has witnessed many moving ceremonies, sad and
+joyful, pathetic and glorious, but never in its history had it witnessed
+a spectacle quite like the present occasion, which had its origin in a
+brutal act of tyranny that had given rise to a cry of horror to agitate
+the civilized world.</p>
+
+<p>Under Wren's great dome were gathered representatives of every
+department of the national life. Mr. E. W. Wallington attended on behalf
+of the King and Queen. It had been expected that Queen Alexandra would
+be similarly represented, but Her Majesty preferred to attend in person
+in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> strictest privacy, typical of that gracious tact that has made her
+universally beloved, and one more proof of her special friendship for
+nurses.</p>
+
+<p>The family of the martyred nurse was represented by two married sisters,
+Miss Scott Cavell, matron of the Hull and East Riding Convalescent Home,
+and other relatives. The aged mother was not present; she was too
+weighed down by weight of years and sorrow to face a public ordeal whose
+pathos would have been too poignant to bear. In imagination could be
+conjured up a white-haired stately dame in her quiet Norwich home,
+engaging in a simultaneous service all her own in the silence of her
+saddened heart.</p>
+
+<p>Among the more distinguished members of the congregation were the Prime
+Minister and not a few members of the Cabinet; members of both Houses of
+Parliament; Sir A. Keogh (representing Lord Kitchener); Lord Charles
+Beresford, a popular representative of the Navy; the Diplomatic Corps;
+the High Commissioners of Canada<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> and Australia; the Deputy Lord Mayor
+and Sheriffs in state; and notable representatives of the arts,
+sciences, commerce, &amp;c. For the rest there was a vast concourse, all
+bent upon the one single purpose of taking advantage of the grave and
+beautiful Anglican ritual to place on record, without bitterness, hate,
+or venom, their deep sense of the foul crime that had sent Edith Cavell
+to her death.</p>
+
+<p>But the outstanding feature of the multitude was the nurses. Six hundred
+of them were in reserved seats, but there must have been at least two
+thousand in the building. First and foremost were various members of
+Miss Cavell's training school in Belgium; and, of course, the 'London,'
+in their dark rifle green, had a prominent place in the great company of
+nurses of all grades, ambassadors and delegates of their noble
+profession. Many of them were simply in caps and aprons with a cloak
+around their shoulders, suggesting that they had come straight from
+their duties in the city's palaces of pain to engage in a service that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span>
+was a fresh consecration of their merciful calling.</p>
+
+<p>Except for the gorgeous habiliments of the civic officials, Queen
+Alexandra's corps of nurses provided the only note of colour in the
+touch of red at the capes; for even the band of the First Life Guards
+was dressed in sober khaki instead of their usually resplendent
+uniforms.</p>
+
+<p>Wounded soldiers, often in groups, were pathetically noticeable among
+the congregation, poor fellows who could testify above all others to the
+mercy and healing brought to the sick and the maimed by 'a noble type of
+good heroic womanhood.' Of the whole immense gathering the majority were
+women. A large proportion of them were in black, the significant badge
+of grief for the loss of their own particular dear ones, the brave
+fellows who have laid down their lives on the battle-fields, or on the
+ocean for whose mistress-ship they died.</p>
+
+<p>As the Cathedral clock boomed out the hour the drums rolled in prelude
+to Chopin's 'Funeral March,' which struck the first<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> note of emotion in
+the massed assembly and brought it to its feet. Slowly the choir, headed
+by the symbol of our and Edith Cavell's faith, moved to their places,
+preceding the clergy, chief of whom were the Bishop of London and Dr.
+Bury, the Bishop of Central Europe.</p>
+
+<p>The service proper commenced with the hymn 'Abide with me,' in which ten
+thousand voices joined, and never was it sung with more feeling and
+reverence. The last verse in particular must have called to every mind
+that inexpressibly sad scene in St. Gilles' Prison. The words brought
+solace and strength to Nurse Cavell, and some of her quiet faith, her
+touching fortitude, seemed to be communicated to the congregation.</p>
+
+<p>Following the special Psalms and the Lesson from the Burial Service,
+band and organ together played the Dead March in <i>Saul</i>; and as the
+notes pulsed and throbbed, pealed out with mighty rush of sound, or
+decreased to little more than the volume of human breath, the terror of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>
+death became secondary to the triumph of the spirit.</p>
+
+<p>With singularly moving effect the choir commenced to sing the Liturgy of
+St. Chrysostom, the beautiful prayer that contrasted so strongly with
+the crashing harmonies that had scarcely ceased to reverberate far up in
+the empty dome.</p>
+
+<p>Prayers from the Burial Service were followed by a special petition
+that, 'laying aside our divisions, we may be united in heart and mind to
+bear the burdens which the War has laid upon us....' The congregation
+sang 'Through the night of doubt and sorrow,' with its happy marching
+swing; the Bishop of London pronounced the Benediction; then came the
+resonant notes of the National Anthem; and the organ played a
+recessional as the choir and clergy retired. A moment later two thousand
+nurses fell to their knees, and 'if ever a soul went well charioted to
+its Maker it was the soul of Edith Cavell.'</p>
+
+<p>The service was over, and those who had been privileged to participate
+in a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> soul-searching ceremony streamed out into the hum of the mightiest
+camp of men the world has ever known. It was like coming from the Holy
+of Holies, with an everlasting memory to kindle the love and enthusiasm
+of all who worship at the shrine of duty.</p>
+
+<p>And the wonder of it all, it was a great national tribute to one who a
+fortnight earlier was unknown outside her own family and immediate
+circle of friends. She had 'lived unknown till persecution dragged her
+into fame and chased her up to heaven,' as a cry of horror and
+execration, mingled with agonized pity for her harrowing fate, flashed
+her name from peak to peak and continent to continent.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>The columns of the British press were flooded with letters denouncing
+the crime and acknowledging the death of the martyr as an irresistibly
+compelling call to duty; and innumerable suggestions were made for
+perpetuating in tangible form the memory of a daughter of England who
+had taught us how to die.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>One notable scheme for a memorial was speedily announced in connexion
+with the London Hospital, which happened to be establishing a new
+nursing home, which was to bear the name of Queen Alexandra. With true
+nobility of heart Queen Alexandra promptly requested that her name
+should give way to that of Edith Cavell, and public subscriptions
+quickly assured an enlargement of the original scheme.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Daily Telegraph</i> initiated a subscription fund to provide a statue
+in stone and bronze by Sir George Frampton, and the eminent sculptor
+intimated that his work would be a labour of love and a voluntary gift.
+The Westminster City Council offered a site opposite the National
+Portrait Gallery; and thus the statue will face Trafalgar Square,
+already rich in national memories. Edith Cavell's death first became
+known in England on Trafalgar Day. The base of the Nelson Monument was
+hidden under the customary floral tributes to our greatest naval hero,
+and amid them was placed a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> wreath of laurels, a symbol of the martyrdom
+of the heroic nurse, of which the public would learn through the press
+the following day. It will be peculiarly fitting for the statue to Edith
+Cavell, whose last words were that she was glad to die for her country,
+to be within sight of the column where stands the one-armed Nelson,
+whose last immortal signal, 'England expects every man to do his duty,'
+has ever been an inspiration not only to the Fleet, but to every true
+lover of his country.</p>
+
+<p>Other ideas for the perpetuation of the name of Nurse Cavell included
+the raising of a Cavell Regiment, that should be a living monument of
+brave men, who would be heartened and vivified by the noble life and
+death of their devoted countrywoman. But the true spirit of Britons
+negatived the necessity for a particular regiment. The next day after
+the announcement of the death of Miss Cavell every eligible man in her
+native village joined the Forces, and the recruits, all told, must have
+numbered many thousands.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Probably it would afford general satisfaction if another proposal bore
+fruit, namely, the institution of a new Order, equivalent to the
+Victoria Cross, for heroism by women of our race and Empire; and the
+heroism of our women in the present War emphasizes the justice and
+wisdom of some such acknowledgement.</p>
+
+<p>Up and down the country there were soon memorial schemes, generally in
+connexion with local hospitals or the British Red Cross Society. One of
+the first of this kind was the endowment of a bed in King Edward VII's
+Hospital, Cardiff, by Sir W. J. Thomas. There speedily followed the
+proposed institution of other beds to be named after Miss Cavell: the
+City of Dublin Hospital asked for £500 to endow a bed; the 'Ediths' of
+Yorkshire commenced to collect to perpetuate her memory in the north;
+and a fund of £1,000 was started for a free bed for nurses at the Mount
+Vernon Hospital for Consumption.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Scott Cavell made it known that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> her sister had hoped some time in
+the future to establish a home for nurses only, those either
+convalescent or tired, or who required a temporary home on holiday from
+abroad, or a temporary place of rest only. A subscription list was at
+once opened to give effect to a plan that had been so near Nurse
+Cavell's heart.</p>
+
+<p>A similar idea, but on a larger scale, was favoured by Sir John Howard,
+well known in Brighton as the giver of the John Howard Convalescent Home
+for Ladies in Reduced Circumstances. He announced that in memory of Miss
+Cavell he would build twenty-four cottage homes for incapacitated
+nurses, and endow each with the sum of ten shillings a week. This
+munificent memorial will entail the expenditure of about £30,000.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="IX" id="IX"></a>IX</h2>
+
+<h3>BRITISH OFFICIAL REPROBATION</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="sc">The</span> language of diplomacy is of a restrained and judicial character,
+even when dealing with questions that arouse in the lay mind a whole
+storm of feeling. But the letter of Sir Edward Grey of October 20, 1915,
+addressed to Mr. Page, the United States Ambassador in London, with
+studied calmness and marked dignity indicts the German authorities of an
+unwarrantable haste in carrying out the sentence that amounts to
+political murder. The Foreign Secretary's comments were as follows:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>'Sir E. Grey is confident that the news of the execution of this
+noble Englishwoman will be received with horror and disgust, not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span>
+only in the United States, but throughout the civilized world. Miss
+Cavell was not even charged with espionage, and the fact that she
+had nursed numbers of wounded German soldiers might have been
+regarded as a complete reason in itself for treating her with
+leniency.</p>
+
+<p>'The attitude of the German authorities is, if possible, rendered
+worse by the discreditable efforts successfully made by the
+officials of the German civil administration at Brussels to conceal
+the fact that sentence had been passed, and would be carried out
+immediately. These efforts were no doubt prompted by the
+determination to carry out the sentence before an appeal from the
+finding of the court-martial could be made to a higher authority,
+and show in the clearest manner that the German authorities
+concerned were well aware that the carrying out of the sentence was
+not warranted by any consideration.</p>
+
+<p>'Further comment on their proceedings would be superfluous.</p>
+
+<p>'In conclusion, Sir E. Grey would request<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> Mr. Page to express to
+Mr. Whitlock and the staff of the United States Legation at
+Brussels the grateful thanks of His Majesty's Government for their
+untiring efforts on Miss Cavell's behalf. He is fully satisfied
+that no stone was left unturned to secure for Miss Cavell a fair
+trial, and, when sentence had been pronounced, a mitigation
+thereof.</p>
+
+<p>'Sir E. Grey realizes that Mr. Whitlock was placed in a very
+embarrassing position by the failure of the German authorities to
+inform him that the sentence had been passed, and would be carried
+out at once. In order, therefore, to forestall any unjust criticism
+which might be made in this country, he is publishing Mr.
+Whitlock's dispatch to Mr. Page without delay.'</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Sir Edward Grey also wrote to the Spanish Ambassador in London
+acknowledging the good services of the Spanish Minister at Brussels, and
+concluding thus:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>'His Majesty's Government much appreciates the efforts made by the
+Marquis de<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> Villalobar on this occasion, and the sentiments of
+humanity and chivalry which animated him, and they would be
+grateful if your Excellency would be good enough to so inform the
+Spanish Government.'</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>In the House of Lords the Earl of Desart asked the Government if they
+could give any information with regard to the execution of Miss Edith
+Cavell by the German authorities in Belgium. Her offence, he said, of
+assisting her own countrymen and the countrymen of our Allies to escape
+was one which a belligerent was entitled to protect itself against, and
+a sentence of execution might even be passed, but such sentence ought
+never to have been carried out by any country. It was rumoured that
+other persons against whom similar charges had been made were lying in
+peril of their lives, and it might be possible through the action of
+neutral countries to prevent a recurrence of one of the greatest
+tragedies of the War.</p>
+
+<p>The Marquis of Lansdowne replied:</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span></p><blockquote><p>'I am not surprised, and I am sure no member of the House can be
+surprised, that the noble Earl should have called attention to this
+most deplorable incident. We have been during the last few months
+continually shocked by occurrences each more terrible and moving
+than its predecessor; but I doubt whether any incident has moved
+public opinion in this country more than the manner in which this
+poor lady was, I suppose I may say, executed in cold blood.</p>
+
+<p>'It is no doubt the case that she may by her conduct have rendered
+herself liable to punishment, perhaps to severe punishment, for
+acts that could be taken to be a violation of the kind of law which
+prevails when war is going on. But I have no hesitation in saying
+that she might at any rate have expected that measure of mercy
+which, I believe, in no civilized country would have been refused
+to one who was not only a woman, but a very brave and devoted
+woman, and one who had given all her efforts and energies to the
+mitigation of the sufferings of others.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'I am able to tell my noble friend that a full report relating to
+the circumstances under which Miss Cavell was executed was
+forwarded to the Foreign Office by the United States Ambassador. We
+learn from this report that the representatives of the United
+States and Spain at Brussels up to the very last moment neglected
+no opportunity or effort in order to obtain a commutation of the
+death sentence passed on Miss Cavell, or even to obtain at least a
+period of suspense before that sentence was carried into effect.
+These efforts failed.</p>
+
+<p>'With regard to the second part of my noble friend's question, I am
+able to tell him that two French ladies have been condemned to
+death on a charge of sheltering British and French fugitive
+soldiers. These ladies were to have been executed on Monday last;
+but I am glad to be able to add that, as the result of strong
+representations made by His Majesty the King of Spain and by the
+Pope, the execution of these sentences has been postponed pending
+consideration by the German<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> Emperor of the reports on both cases.
+I will only add that I am convinced there is not a man or woman in
+this country who will not join with the noble Earl in the protest
+he has made against this terrible occurrence.'</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>In the House of Commons Mr. Asquith, the Prime Minister, said:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>'If there be moments such as come to all of us when we are tempted
+to be fainthearted, let us ask ourselves what year in our history
+has done more to justify our faith in the manhood and the womanhood
+of our people? It has brought us, as we cannot at this moment
+forget, the imperishable story of the last hours of Edith Cavell,
+facing a terrible ordeal worse than that of the battle-field. She
+has taught the bravest man amongst us the supreme lesson of
+courage. Yes, and in this United Kingdom and throughout the
+Dominions of the Crown there are thousands of such women. A year
+ago we did not know it. We have great<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> traditions, but a nation
+cannot exist by traditions alone. Thank God, we have living
+examples of all the qualities which have built up and sustained our
+Empire. Let us be worthy of them, and endure to the end.'</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The Secretary for Foreign Affairs was asked whether, according to
+Article 10 of the Hague Convention of 1907 and the guarantee of the
+neutrality of Belgium, to which Prussia was a party, the late Miss
+Cavell was, according to such law as could be applied to her case,
+guilty of any military offence.</p>
+
+<p>Sir E. Grey: 'It seems unnecessary to go into technical legal points to
+condemn what has been done in this case. The reprobation of it, which I
+believe is widespread in the world, rests upon higher considerations,
+which arouse deeper feelings, than mere illegality.'</p>
+
+<p>In another question the Secretary for Foreign Affairs was asked whether
+he had taken, or intended to take, any steps to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> convey to the Military
+Governor of Brussels that, when opportunity offered, he would be held
+personally responsible by His Majesty's Government for the
+quasi-judicial assassination of Miss Cavell.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Robert Cecil: 'On May 5 last the Prime Minister assured the House
+that due reparation would be exacted from all persons, whatever their
+position, who can be shown to have maltreated our prisoners in Germany.
+That pledge still holds good, and applies with twofold force in the case
+of the savage murder under legal forms of a noble woman. I do not think
+that it would serve any good purpose to attempt to convey this resolve
+to any particular German official, who, for aught we know at present,
+may not be the chief offender.'</p>
+
+<p>The statement of the Prime Minister to which the above reference was
+made was as follows:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>'The Government were at least as anxious as anybody else that when
+the proper time came due reparation should be exacted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> from all
+persons, whatever their position or their antecedents, who could be
+shown to have violated the most elementary principles, and perhaps
+the most fundamental, of all the rules and usages of civilized
+warfare.'</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>If there be any value in the British Government's expressed
+determination, then assuredly von Bissing and von der Lancken will be
+indicted for the offence that stinks in the nostrils of the whole
+world.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="X" id="X"></a>X</h2>
+
+<h3>GERMANY'S CYNICAL DEFENCE</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="sc">Germany</span> speedily found it wise to attempt to justify the execution of
+Miss Cavell in order to moderate the storm of indignation that had been
+aroused in neutral countries. To that end Dr. Zimmermann,
+Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, set forth the German defence in an
+interview granted to a United States correspondent in Berlin.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>'It was a pity,' said Dr. Zimmermann, 'that Miss Cavell had to be
+executed, but it was necessary. She was judged justly. We hope it
+will not be necessary to have any more executions.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'I see from the English and American press that the shooting of an
+Englishwoman and the condemnation of several other women in
+Brussels for treason has caused a sensation, and capital against us
+is being made out of the fact. It is undoubtedly a terrible thing
+that the woman has been executed; but consider what would happen to
+a State, particularly in war, if it left crimes aimed at the safety
+of its armies to go unpunished because committed by women. No
+criminal code in the world&mdash;least of all the laws of war&mdash;makes
+such a distinction; and the feminine sex has but one preference,
+according to legal usages, namely, that women in a delicate
+condition may not be executed. Otherwise men and women are equal
+before the law, and only the degree of guilt makes a difference in
+the sentence for the crime and its consequences.</p>
+
+<p>'I have before me the court's verdict in the Cavell case, and can
+assure you that it was gone into with the utmost thoroughness, and
+was investigated and cleared up<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> to the smallest details. The
+result was so convincing, and the circumstances were so clear, that
+no war court in the world could have given any other verdict, for
+it was not concerned with a single emotional deed of one person,
+but a well-thought-out plot, with many far-reaching ramifications,
+which for nine months succeeded in doing valuable service to our
+enemies and great detriment to our armies. Countless Belgian,
+French, and English soldiers are again fighting in the ranks of the
+Allies who owe their escape to the band now found guilty, whose
+head was the Cavell woman. Only the utmost sternness could do away
+with such activities under the very nose of our authorities, and a
+Government which in such case does not resort to the sternest
+measures sins against its most elementary duties toward the safety
+of its own army.</p>
+
+<p>'All those convicted were thoroughly aware of the nature of their
+acts. The court particularly weighed this point with care, letting
+off several of the accused because they were in doubt as to
+whether<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> they knew that their actions were punishable. Those
+condemned knew what they were doing, for numerous public
+proclamations had pointed out the fact that aiding enemies' armies
+was punishable with death.</p>
+
+<p>'I know that the motives of the condemned were not base; that they
+acted from patriotism; but in war one must be prepared to seal
+one's patriotism with blood, whether one faces the enemy in battle,
+or otherwise in the interest of one's cause does deeds which justly
+bring after them the death penalty. Among our Russian prisoners are
+several young girls who fought against us in soldiers' uniforms.
+Had one of these girls fallen, no one would have accused us of
+barbarity against women. Why now, when another woman has met the
+death to which she knowingly exposed herself, as did her comrades
+in battle?</p>
+
+<p>'There are moments in the life of nations where consideration for
+the existence of the individual is a crime against all. Such<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> a
+moment was here. It was necessary once for all to put an end to the
+activity of our enemies, regardless of their motives; therefore the
+death penalty was executed so as to frighten off all those who,
+counting on preferential treatment for their sex, take part in
+undertakings punishable by death.</p>
+
+<p>'It was proved after a long trial of the sentenced persons that
+they for some months past had been engaged in assisting Belgians of
+military age to enlist in hostile armies, and in enabling French
+and English deserters to escape the country. They had many helpers,
+and had organized branches.</p>
+
+<p>'The Governor-General had repeatedly issued warnings against such
+activity, pointing out that severe punishment for such action was
+unavoidable.</p>
+
+<p>'The guilty persons were sentenced in a public sitting according to
+the law based on the provisions of the imperial penal code and the
+military penal code for war treason and espionage. No special law
+exists for Belgium, and no so-called "usage<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> of war" influenced the
+verdict of the court.'</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Dr. Zimmermann maintained that the execution was carried out in
+accordance with the established regulations, death occurring immediately
+after the first volley, as attested by the physician who was present.</p>
+
+<p>The greater part of Dr. Zimmermann's futile reasoning is not worth
+discussion in detail. The one outstanding fact is the common belief that
+no military authorities in Europe, other than German, would have
+executed Miss Cavell for an offence actuated by purest motives of
+patriotism, and in which there was not the faintest suspicion of
+espionage. It may be remarked, too, that in America Judge Lynch never
+executed a woman. The attempt to draw a parallel case between Nurse
+Cavell and Russian women who have fought as soldiers is puerile in the
+extreme. In the case of the Russian, she is dressed in male uniform, and
+the German who shoots her in action does so in ignorance of her sex;
+Miss Cavell was a Red Cross nurse whose services to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> German wounded
+alone should have struck a spark of compassion.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>Later, an inspired telegram was issued from Berlin to counteract the
+'incorrect and exaggerated' discussions in the foreign press. It was
+stated that Miss Cavell was sentenced in a public sitting, although it
+is an incontrovertible fact that the American Legation could not get
+permission to be represented. It is laid to Miss Cavell's charge that
+she 'nursed only rich people for heavy fees.' Even if it were true, it
+would not palliate the German offence of hurried and clandestine murder;
+but we know, and the Germans know, that her whole life was spent in
+doing good for others. Finally is repeated the old statement that
+cruelties were committed by Lord Kitchener during the Boer War on women
+and children. This oft-repeated libel needs no refutation of ours,
+because it was demolished years ago by the German official history of
+the Boer War.</p>
+
+<p>The next step in German impudence was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> an attempt to make believe that
+in the documents exchanged between the American Legation in Brussels and
+the German authorities as published by the British Government, some
+circumstances of the utmost importance are inaccurately reported by the
+Belgian lawyer who acts as legal adviser to the Legation. To this Sir
+Edward Grey informed the press that the papers relating to the case of
+Miss Cavell were published exactly as they were received from the
+American Embassy and with the American Embassy's consent.</p>
+
+<p>On November 20, however, nearly a month later, the British Foreign
+Office did make public one correction:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>'The letter addressed by the United States Minister at Brussels to
+the Ambassador in London, under date October 14, to the effect that
+the German prosecutor had asked for a sentence of death against
+Miss Edith Cavell <i>and eight other persons implicated by her
+testimony</i> was due to erroneous information furnished<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> to the
+United States Legation, and, so far as it has been possible to
+discover, no other person has been directly implicated by any
+testimony on the part of Miss Cavell.'</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The acknowledgement of this mistake, however, could have afforded the
+Germans but little satisfaction, because its only effect was the removal
+of a slur on the loyalty of Miss Cavell to her friends.</p>
+
+<p>In the clumsy attempt to justify their savagery the Germans have done
+nothing to prevent judgement going by default in the heart of all
+civilized nations. They omit all reference to their inhuman haste and
+calculated trickery, and their venomous refusal to allow exhumation and
+proper burial. No laws of war permit such outrages, no military
+necessities can excuse and no pedantic partisan can vindicate them.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="XI" id="XI"></a>XI</h2>
+
+<h3>JUSTICE AND SAVAGERY CONTRASTED</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="sc">Sir John Simon</span>, the late Home Secretary, in an interview with a United
+States correspondent in London, averred that in the record of Britain's
+treatment of persons accused of military offences the case of Miss
+Cavell had and could have no parallel. To no woman, even in cases of
+clearly proved espionage, had Britain meted out a sentence of death; and
+in no case is a woman, whatever her nationality, tried in any but a
+civil court.</p>
+
+<p>It may be urged that in an occupied territory such as Belgium the
+administration of the law may call for slight difference; but the Cavell
+case was not a sudden<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> or unexpected discovery that called for a
+drumhead court-martial on a battle-field. The 'crime' was committed in
+Brussels, where the invaders claim to have restored orderly government
+under their own civil governor.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>'In England the accused is brought before a tribunal which holds a
+preliminary inquiry taking the summary evidence. He is always
+assisted by a lawyer, and a complete record of the evidence, oral
+and documentary, is given to the accused, who is then allowed an
+interval to prepare for defence. <i>If it is a woman, the trial
+always takes place before a civil tribunal</i>; if a man, he has the
+right to claim to be tried before a civil tribunal instead of a
+court-martial, if he be a British subject. At the trial, whether
+military or civil, the lawyers for the defence have the same
+opportunities as are given the accused in an ordinary case in peace
+times.</p>
+
+<p>'In the last case involving a woman in this country the offender
+was of German<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> birth, though technically a subject of another
+country owing to marriage. She was acting in association with a
+male spy, and was detected travelling to various points in order to
+collect information about naval defences. The evidence against her
+was overwhelming, and did not depend solely on witnesses, but on
+documents found in her possession and letters written by her and
+her associates.</p>
+
+<p>'Going through the preliminary proceedings as previously described,
+she was tried in September by three civil judges of our High Court
+and a jury, and was convicted, not of harbouring German soldiers,
+but of deliberate and persistent spying for the purpose of
+providing the enemy with important information. Her male companion
+was condemned to death; she was sentenced to ten years'
+imprisonment.</p>
+
+<p>'In the case of a court-martial, reconsideration always takes
+place; in a civil trial, such as the one just recounted, there is a
+right of appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeal and consideration
+by the Home<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> Secretary, who gives his advice as to the prerogative
+of mercy. In the particular case mentioned the woman did not
+appeal.</p>
+
+<p>'In any case when the accused has claimed to have connexion with a
+neutral country we have not waited for application to be made to
+us. We thought it right to give the neutral Embassy information of
+the arrest. It has happened in several cases that the accused was
+carrying what he alleged to be a United States passport. In such
+cases, as the others, the American Embassy was consulted, and the
+solicitors and counsel for defence were retained with the Embassy's
+approval.</p>
+
+<p>'Execution never follows a sentence here without a proper interval.
+Indeed, there was a case not long ago when on the eve of the
+execution a postponement was requested in order that some further
+representation might be considered. The sentence was postponed for
+a week, and the whole case was reviewed in the light of the new
+material. In a case now pending the accused says he wishes to call
+evidence from the other side<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> of the world. We don't know whether
+the evidence will be helpful, but we have postponed the final trial
+from August to December.</p>
+
+<p>'Mind you, I am not claiming any credit for the British Government
+for our procedure. There is nothing unusual, to my mind, in taking
+care that the accused persons have the fullest opportunity for
+their defence. The thing that strikes Englishmen as most incredible
+in the case of Miss Cavell is the calculated indifference with
+which the inquiries of the American and Spanish Ministers were
+treated. If the excuse is suggested that in time of war severe and
+harsh measures have to be taken, our own experience is enough to
+show that it is possible to combine a regard for the rights of the
+accused and the respect for humane considerations with the effect
+of punishment of hostile offences of the most serious kind.</p>
+
+<p>'It would have seemed impossible for the Germans to do anything to
+increase the horror produced by their behaviour in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> Belgium. It
+would have seemed impossible to do anything which could cement more
+closely the bond of sympathy between the populations of England and
+Belgium. But they have accomplished both impossibilities by one
+horrible act of brutality.'</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The foregoing contrast between British and German conceptions of justice
+is practically the difference between barbarism and civilization; and
+Sir John Simon's impressive exposition of the difference between the two
+systems calls for nothing to elaborate it.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="XII" id="XII"></a>XII</h2>
+
+<h3>PULPIT AND PEN UNITE IN DENUNCIATION</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="sc">The</span> publication of the official correspondence affording the details of
+Miss Cavell's stealthy execution raised a storm of righteous
+indignation, which found expression in every pulpit in the British
+Isles; while on the platform or in the press men of light and leading
+joined in their condemnation of the German atrocity. The following are
+but a few notable examples of whole sheaves of similar outpourings.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>The Bishop of London, in preaching the Trafalgar Day Sermon, at St.
+Martin-in-the-Fields, said:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span></p>
+
+<blockquote><p>'The cold-blooded murder of Miss Cavell, a poor English girl,
+deliberately shot by Germans for housing refugees, will run the
+sinking of the <i>Lusitania</i> close in the civilized world as the
+greatest crime in history. There is one thing about the incident
+which, perhaps, was not taken into account by those who perpetrated
+the crime. It will settle the matter once for all about recruiting
+in Great Britain. There will be no need now of compulsion. I wonder
+what Nelson would have said if he had been told that an
+Englishwoman had been shot in cold blood by the members of any
+other nation? He would have made more than the diplomatic inquiries
+which have been made by a great neutral into this crime, right and
+proper as those inquiries are. He would have made his inquiries by
+the thunder of the guns of the British Fleet, and pressed the
+question with the Nelson touch which won Trafalgar, as, indeed, our
+own Fleet at this moment is only too ready to do. But is it
+possible that there is one young<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> man in England to-day who will
+sit still under this monstrous wrong? The three million new
+recruits asked for will be there. Why was she put to death? Why was
+she murdered? Three thousand thousand Englishmen, and Scotsmen and
+Irishmen too, will know the reason why. God's curse is on the
+nation that tramples underfoot and defies the laws of chivalry
+which once relieved the horrors of war.'</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The following is the Rev. F. B. Meyer's eloquent contribution:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>'We may thank God for the chivalrous reverence in which the British
+race holds womanhood; and how nobly that reverence has been
+responded to is evident in the unparalleled service which the women
+of our time have been giving to fill the depleted ranks of labour
+and to render invaluable service in all departments, from the
+hospital to the harvest-field.</p>
+
+<p>'The crowning horror of the German treatment of womanhood is the
+atrocious<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> murder of this woman, who lived to alleviate suffering,
+and who only did what any one of us would have done in saving the
+lives of refugees who sought the shelter of a home. There should be
+no necessity for executing a woman in war-time; and if it is said
+that crime is committed in passion, the murder of Miss Cavell is
+inexcusable even on that ground, because she was executed in cold
+blood.</p>
+
+<p>'It is impossible for any British men who are of suitable age and
+physical fitness for the army to hold back, because it is certain
+that the measure meted out to Nurse Cavell would be gentleness
+itself compared to the treatment which would befall our womanhood
+if once the German invasion triumphed over our resistance.</p>
+
+<p>'If only the crime that we deprecate to-day would lead us to
+concentrate our thought on the War, we should be doing more than we
+realize towards bringing it to an end. The pessimist, the croaker,
+the grumbler, the critic, work in a contrary direction. Our
+enemies, with their Hymns<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> of Hate and concentrated venom,
+endeavour to hurt us, and they forget that passions of that sort
+recoil on their instigators as poisonous gases roll back with the
+wind to those who sent them. We do not concentrate in a spirit of
+revenge or hatred, but in the stern resolve of an entire nation
+that we shall never stay our hands until our Empire is free from
+all fear of menace.</p>
+
+<p>'Miss Cavell has set the world an example of how we should bear
+ourselves in a supreme crisis. Her heroic conduct, her calm
+composure in the face of death, cannot be accounted for merely by
+her temperament. They were due to her religious faith.</p>
+
+<p>'She died as a Christian, looking towards the Redeemer, and forgave
+her persecutors, and she will go on ministering still.</p>
+
+<p>'A life like hers will reverberate through the world. Thousands
+will be inspired by her example, and long after the War has passed
+away her name and character will shine like a beacon light in
+history.'</p></blockquote><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The Rev. Lord William Cecil contributed a special sermon to the columns
+of the <i>Daily Telegraph</i>, of which is quoted only the final portion:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>'Edith Cavell lives in the heart of the nation; nay, in the esteem
+of the world.</p>
+
+<p>'She by her deed has won undying renown, and has made England more
+glorious. Far and wide will they tell the tale, and add&mdash;"Of such
+are the English."</p>
+
+<p>'The work of the statesman passes. New generations arise, with new
+problems and new combinations. The victories of the general are
+forgotten or live in the musty pages of history with dates and
+sententious comments of the historian. But glorious deeds of
+sacrifice never die. They live and grow mightier as years roll on.</p>
+
+<p>'The old English chronicler, Hall, after discussing the question
+whether Joan of Arc was justly killed or no, adds this
+comment&mdash;that "it matters not, for in a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> few years the whole story
+will be forgotten." Poor fool! He forgot that good deeds live, and
+therefore can never be forgotten. So we shall tell the story of
+Edith Cavell to the wondering children, and they on their knees
+will lisp in childish words a prayer that they may grow like such a
+holy woman.</p>
+
+<p>'And the ages that are to come will learn her name. Yes, long after
+other great actors in this awful tragedy are forgotten&mdash;when the
+names of kings and kaisers are lost in the obscurity of the
+past&mdash;the sacrifice made by Edith Cavell will be remembered as we
+remember the holy deeds of saints and the martyrdom of the
+Christian virgins.</p>
+
+<p>'This foul world needs some saint to save it.</p>
+
+<p>'The world that tells lies, breaks sworn treaties, murders and
+kills, needs a ransom. Vile as it is, so vile that those who look
+on it marvel at the depravity of human nature, and now, as a
+sin-offering, a woman has been offered by the blood-lusting
+Germans.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'The sacrifice will surely tell in the great world beyond, and a
+blessing will come from her death.</p>
+
+<p>'The heavenly trumpets sound the victory. Fear and cruelty shall
+not prevail. Honour, love, and sacrifice are conquerors. And this
+world will be saved from that combination of human power and
+vileness which is revealed to the world by the Prussian military
+system.</p>
+
+<p>'Edith Cavell, by her sacrifice, pleads with God to send
+righteousness again on this war-torn earth.</p>
+
+<p>'She will conquer.'</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Mr. T. P. O'Connor delivered more than one eloquent speech, and that
+which we quote may be accepted as the voice of Ireland:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>'If ever we had any doubts as to what our duty is in this War, it
+must have been removed by the events of the past few days. We have
+given to this cause of liberty one of the noblest figures that ever
+appeared<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> in the martyrology of liberty throughout the history of
+the world.</p>
+
+<p>'I like to think of Miss Cavell as a symbol of our race. By her
+devotion to duty, her assiduity in her work, her determination to
+stand by her post, her humanity to the enemy as well as to the
+friend, her words of courage, and at the same time of broad pity
+and humanity, even under the shadow of death, that woman has done
+more to inspire our race in our fight than the gallantry even of a
+hundred thousand men.</p>
+
+<p>'I am glad to see that a great newspaper has opened a fund for the
+purpose of raising an adequate monument to her memory; but no
+monument of marble or of bronze will speak as her own personality,
+her own life, and her death.'</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The following is extracted from a powerful article by Professor J. H.
+Morgan in the <i>Graphic</i>:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>'The execution of Miss Cavell is not, perhaps, the most revolting
+of the innumerable outrages committed by the German<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> army, but it
+is certainly the most callous and the most authoritative. Hundreds
+of women and young girls have been outraged by German officers and
+men; many have been shot, and others burnt alive. But what
+distinguishes the case of Miss Cavell&mdash;not forgetting the singular
+nobility of her character&mdash;from these obscurer tragedies is the
+fact that, owing to the presence of the vigilant and high-minded
+Minister of a neutral State, the veil has been lifted upon the
+whole proceedings, from their inception to their mournful
+conclusion in the courtyard of the prison of St. Gilles, and the
+world has had revealed to it in the most lurid light the sinister
+character of German "justice."</p>
+
+<p>'The noble woman who, out of the abundance of her charity, sought
+to save men from these things has been condemned and executed on a
+charge of having offended against military law. I know nothing more
+tragically ironical than that the Power which has broken all laws,
+human and divine, should seek to justify<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> the condemnation of Edith
+Cavell with all the pomp of a tribunal of justice. While thousands
+of ravishers and spoilers go free, one woman who had spent her life
+in ministries to such as were sick and afflicted is handed over to
+the executioner. Truly there has been no such trial since Barabbas
+was released and Christ led forth to the hill of Calvary.'</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Mr. G. K. Chesterton contributed a scathing indictment to the
+<i>Illustrated London News</i>:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>'There is not much that can be said, or said easily, about the
+highest aspects of the murder of Edith Cavell. When we have said,
+"Dear in the sight of God is the death of His saints," we have said
+as much as mere literature has ever been able to say in the matter.</p>
+
+<p>'The thing was not done to protect the Prussian power. It was done
+to satisfy a Prussian appetite. The mad disproportion between the
+possible need of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> restraining their enemy and the frantic
+needlessness of killing her is simply the measure of the distance
+by which the distorted Prussian psychology has departed from the
+moral instincts of mankind. The key to the Prussian is in this
+extraordinary fact: that he does truly and in his heart believe
+that he is <i>admired</i> whenever he can manage to be dreaded. An
+indefensible act of public violence is to him what a poem is to a
+poet or a song to a bird. It at once relieves and expresses him; he
+feels more himself while he is doing it. His whole conception of
+the State is a series of such <i>coups d'état</i>. In Poland, in Alsace,
+in Lorraine, in the Danish provinces, he has wholly failed to
+govern; indeed, he has never really attempted to govern. For
+governing means making people at home.</p>
+
+<p>'Wherever he goes, and whatever success he gains, he will always
+make it an occasion for sanguinary pantomimes of this kind. And
+awful as is the individual loss, it is well that now, at the very
+moment when<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> men, wily or weak, are beginning to talk of
+conciliatory possibilities in this incurable criminal, he should
+himself have provided us with this appalling reply.'</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Mr. Hall Caine attended the great Memorial Service in St. Paul's
+Cathedral; and below is a short extract from his impressions as recorded
+in the <i>Daily Telegraph</i>:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>'What has brought this multitude together? A great victory? The
+close of a great campaign? The funeral (as at this time last year)
+of a grand old warrior who, after many glorious victories, has
+died, as is most fit, within sound of the guns in the War he
+foretold, and is being borne to his lasting place amid the
+acclamations of his countrymen and the homage of the world? No, but
+the memory of a poor woman, a hospital nurse, who has been foully
+done to death by a barbarous enemy, condemned for acts of mercy and
+humanity, tried in secret, shot in haste, and then buried in a
+traitor's grave!<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>'What a triumph for religion, for Christianity, for the Church!
+What an answer to Nietzsche! What a rebuke to Treitschke! What a
+smashing blow to the all-wise philosophers who have been telling us
+that Corsica has conquered Galilee! That in these dark and evil
+days the people of London should assemble in tens of thousands to
+thank God for the shadow of the scaffold and to find inspiration in
+thinking of the martyr's end is proof enough that not lust of
+empire, not "the will to power," not war for its own sake or for
+the triumphs it brings in its train, but religion, with its
+righteousness, is still the bread of our souls.'</p></blockquote>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="XIII" id="XIII"></a>XIII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE LASH OF THE WORLD'S PRESS</h3>
+
+<h4><span class="smcap">Selections from British Journals</span></h4>
+
+
+<p><i>The Times.</i></p>
+
+<blockquote><p>'The ordinary German mind is doubtless incapable of understanding
+the "horror and disgust" which the military execution of Miss
+Cavell will arouse throughout the civilized world. We shall be
+surprised if within the next few days the press of all neutral
+lands does not re-echo these feelings with an intensity which will
+astonish the disciples of "Kultur." Here we have in its highest
+development that boasted product of the Teutonic intelligence and
+the Teutonic heart. The very spirit of Zabern, but of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> Zabern in
+war-time, broods over the whole brutal and stupid story. There is
+not in Europe, outside Germany and her Allies, a man who can read
+it without the deepest emotions of pity and of shame. The victim
+was a lady who had devoted her life to the noblest and the most
+womanly work woman can do. She was the head of a great nursing
+institute which has trained numbers of nurses for Germany as well
+as for Belgium. She herself nursed many wounded Germans at the
+beginning of the War. She has been sentenced to death by their
+officers, and shot by their comrades. So is it that the Germans
+requite the charity of strangers. She had been guilty of a military
+offence&mdash;the offence of harbouring her own wounded countrymen and
+Belgians amongst whom she had lived and worked, and of getting them
+across the Dutch frontier. That was enough for the uniformed
+pedants who tried her, and for their civilian subordinates. She was
+perfectly straightforward and truthful with the court. They sent
+her to her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> death upon her own admissions. They could not, even by
+their own harsh law, have convicted her without these admissions.
+Her frankness did not profit her any more than did her sex, her
+calling, or her services to the Kaiser's wounded troops. There was
+the fact: she acknowledged certain acts which could be twisted into
+"conveying soldiers to the enemy," and the legal penalty for this
+offence under the German military code is death. That was enough
+for her judges. They sentenced her on a Monday afternoon, and had
+her shot in the dark at two o'clock next morning. Napoleon ordered
+a similar "execution" in the ditch of Vincennes. It cost him and
+his Empire dear.</p>
+
+<p>'There is not much more to tell. The Councillor to the American
+Legation was refused permission to visit the prisoner after
+sentence, and a like refusal was at first given to the English
+clergyman, Mr. Gahan. This last refusal, worthy of the Jacobins who
+refused a confessor to Marie Antoinette, was, however, not
+persisted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> in, and the doomed Englishwoman had the consolations of
+her own Church, and received the Holy Communion from Mr. Gahan's
+hands. He found her "admirably strong and calm." She admitted again
+her guilt according to German military law, but assured him that
+"she was happy to die for her country." Her country with one voice
+acknowledges the claim. She did in very truth die for England, and
+England will not lightly forget her death. That she had committed a
+technical offence is undeniable; but so did Andreas Hofer and other
+victims of Napoleonic tyranny whose doom patriotic Germans never
+cease to execrate. We do not know whether the hide-bound brutality
+of the military authorities or the lying trickery of the civilians
+is the more repulsive. Both were determined that Miss Cavell should
+die, and they conspired together to shoot her before an appeal
+could be lodged. They have killed the English nurse, as Napoleon
+killed the Duc D'Enghien, and by killing her they have immeasurably
+deepened the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> stain of infamy that degrades them in the eyes of the
+whole world. They could have done no deed better calculated to
+serve the British cause.'</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><i>The Morning Post.</i></p>
+
+<blockquote><p>'Often as in the course of the past fifteen months we have been
+astounded by the relapses into elemental barbarism which our
+adversaries have exhibited, perhaps there is no case that shows up
+so much as this the ghastly descent of the German character into
+primitive brutality. When it is admitted that the charge was proved
+true, by the accused's confessions, and that it was a charge that,
+according to the military code in force at Brussels, might be
+visited with the penalty of death, all is said that can be said for
+the real criminals. A proclamation of martial law usually invests
+the military authority with the power of inflicting the severest
+penalties over a wide range of offences. This does not mean that
+that authority is to deal in nothing but death sentences. But it
+is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> quite useless to look for any colourable pretext for German
+remorselessness in this matter. They were resolved from the first
+to commit this deed of cruelty, but they were feverishly anxious
+that it should be kept secret until beyond recall. From the moment
+that the American Legation was known to have got news of Miss
+Cavell's arrest and to be concerned in seeing that she was properly
+defended, the German local Government begins to adopt every means
+for throwing dust in the eyes of the United States representatives.
+Surely such a story has never been presented to the modern world as
+is here unfolded.</p>
+
+<p>'All who have given attention to Napoleonic literature must have
+recollections of prints of the death of the Duc D'Enghien&mdash;the
+firing party under the glare of the torches, the prisoner standing
+on the brink of his newly dug grave. In Napoleon's lifetime, and
+for many years after, nothing hurt his personal reputation more
+than this summary, furtive execution in the dead of night that
+seemed to proclaim its own<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> blood-guiltiness. But the great
+Frenchman acted in this matter with the motives and in the manner
+of an Eastern Sultan. He saw a man whom, rightly or wrongly, he
+believed to be a danger to himself; he arrested him lawlessly on
+foreign soil, and struck him down lawlessly. But what is there in
+common between such an episode and the midnight execution of a
+defenceless woman who never meant harm to any human being, who only
+came within reach of the criminal law by her superior regard for
+the higher precepts of mercy and compassion?</p>
+
+<p>'When we think of the scene in that Brussels jail we may well
+wonder that at this time of day it should be possible to get men to
+participate in such a deed. Is it that insufficient blood has been
+shed during this past year that men should hunger after one
+harmless life? Yet we should evidently make a great mistake to
+treat our heroic countrywoman's end as if a mere case for
+compassion.</p>
+
+<p>'One cannot mourn beyond a certain<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> point for such a death. Who
+could have dreamed a few years ago that English womanhood would be
+producing such a heroine&mdash;the counterpart and realization in actual
+life of the Antigone whom the tragedian's inspired imagination has
+held up to the world's admiration for so many centuries?'</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><i>The Daily Telegraph.</i></p>
+
+<blockquote><p>'We do not know whether any comment would be adequate in a case
+like this, or whether, indeed, all comment is not superfluous. We
+have had large experience of the brutality with which the enemy
+conducts his warfare, and especially the inhuman recklessness with
+which he pursues his vengeance against the civilian population of
+the countries which he invades. We venture to think, however, that
+in the case of a nurse, a woman whose life is dedicated to the
+alleviation of pain, cruelty of this kind, cruelty that presses
+against her the very extremity of martial law, is more diabolical
+even than all the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> other counts of a growing indictment. No other
+nation in Europe, we believe, would have put a nurse to death in
+circumstances of this kind. They would have made some allowance for
+her woman's tender heart, even though she had been guilty of an
+offence, and therefore deserved some punishment. Nothing, probably,
+can now brand with fouler infamy the German name, stained as it is
+by all the damning items in its past record, from Louvain and the
+<i>Lusitania</i> down to the murder of an English nurse.'</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><i>The Standard.</i></p>
+
+<blockquote><p>'Those who sorrow for the death of a good and brave Englishwoman
+who died for her country as truly and nobly as any soldier in the
+field must most warmly acknowledge the efforts made on her behalf
+by the Ministers of the United States and of Spain. Everything
+which could be done by gentlemen of kindly spirit and resolution to
+save her was done. We are once more under a debt of unbounded
+gratitude to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> those neutrals who have, from the first, striven to
+maintain some of the mitigations of the horrors of warfare which
+our enemy thrusts aside with contempt. They strained their
+diplomatic prerogatives to the utmost in the cause of mercy, and,
+if all their efforts were unavailing to combat the logical savagery
+of the German military mind, the fault was none of theirs. We must
+add also that, despite the horror at the outrage which they cannot
+conceal, the representatives of the United States who have reported
+are perfectly fair to the Germans. Although their own proposals for
+the defence of Miss Cavell were rejected, they do not deny that her
+trial was, in a sense, fair, and that the issue was in accordance
+with the evidence and the provisions of the German military code.
+The correspondence of Mr. Brand Whitlock with Mr. Page, and the
+documents he forwards, gain the greater cogency from their frank
+avowal of that fact. Murder by process of law is, of course, no
+rare thing. Judge Jeffreys was a murderer of that kind. But<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> it has
+always aroused greater anger and contempt among men of right
+feeling than murder of any other kind, and those, we are sure, will
+be the feelings aroused throughout the world by the story of the
+murder of this noble woman, who, if she offended against the laws
+of her country's foes, could have been so easily rendered harmless
+by means far less severe. The vengeance of the strong upon the weak
+is the most abhorrent spectacle in the eyes of all right-minded
+people which can be exhibited.</p>
+
+<p>'It would be easy to pour forth vials of denunciation on the heads
+of the Germans for this act. But it is utterly useless to do so,
+and, if useless, then weak. A homely proverb says that you can
+expect nothing from a pig but a grunt, and we know by this time
+what to expect from our present enemy. Their standard of justice,
+of manliness, of chivalry, is altogether diverse from ours, and
+atrocities such as this done on Miss Cavell must simply confirm us
+in our determination that it is our standard<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> and not theirs which
+is going to prevail in the world of the future. As one outrage
+follows another the conviction grows the stronger that the world on
+the Prussian model would be an intolerable place, and that every
+man who loves freedom, mercy, and justice had better die than live
+to see it so. The correspondence must be read in full. We shall not
+attempt to discuss it in detail. In due course, as we most fully
+believe, the blood of all those who have perished to slake the
+brutal German thirst for dominion will be required at the hands of
+the guilty. On the other hand, the name of Edith Cavell is
+henceforth enshrined among the patriots and martyrs who have died
+nobly for the honour of the Empire. May her relatives and friends
+find comfort in that thought!'</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><i>The Daily Mail.</i></p>
+
+<blockquote><p>'The story of Miss Cavell's arrest, trial, and martyrdom is one of
+those sublime tragedies which make the deepest appeal to the heart
+of man. The facts cover the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> enemy with eternal infamy. The Germans
+did to death a woman whose whole life had been dedicated to the
+service of suffering man, for a breach of a barbarous law which
+they themselves had imposed. All efforts to save her were in vain.
+The German authorities tricked and attempted to deceive the United
+States Minister at Brussels, who made the most persistent exertions
+in her behalf. They evidently hurried on the execution in order
+that no chance might baulk them of their prey. This is a deed which
+in its horror and wicked purposelessness stuns the world and cries
+to heaven for vengeance.</p>
+
+<p>'Miss Cavell neither grieved nor faltered when she knew her fate.
+She was happy, she said, to die for her country; and a life which
+had been generously devoted to a noble work was crowned by an
+heroic death. It is difficult to say what inspiration a nation does
+not draw from such an example as hers, which lifts up even the
+meanest and most selfish heart to new heights of unselfish love and
+devotion.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> "To weep would do her wrong." Her life and death are
+beautiful as those of the saints of old, and will move mankind like
+immortal music or song. In the truest sense she may be said to have
+died happy. Her country will never forget her. Her memory will
+brace our troops in the hour of battle, and when the grey forms
+close in the North Sea it will be there. Those who die thus have
+won immortality.'</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><i>The Daily Chronicle.</i></p>
+
+<blockquote><p>'In a War which numbers its casualties by millions, and which has
+witnessed holocausts of atrocity like the sinking of the
+<i>Lusitania</i> and the sack of Louvain, the murder of a single lady
+may seem a small episode. But the enormity of a crime is not always
+measured by the number of its victims. Here was a lady of education
+who had devoted her life to the relief of human suffering. The head
+of a great nursing institute, she had helped to train hundreds of
+nurses, including Germans. When the War broke out she devoted her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span>
+whole strength to the care of the wounded, and had lavished her
+personal attention on wounded German soldiers. Latterly she had
+assisted certain British, French, and Belgian soldiers to escape to
+England across the Dutch frontier. Charged with this military
+offence, she admitted it with complete candour; indeed, she seems
+to have been the principal witness against herself. One may safely
+affirm that, having regard to her transparently humanitarian
+motives and all the circumstances of the case, no Government in the
+world but the German would have inflicted the death penalty on such
+a culprit. They not merely inflicted it, but compassed its
+infliction with a mixture of duplicity and brutality that must make
+every decent human being's gorge rise. Of Miss Cavell herself no
+one will dispute that if any death in this War has been heroic,
+hers was; one cannot say less, and no one could say more. The sense
+of the whole civilized world can be left to judge between this
+helpless woman and her murderers.'</p></blockquote><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>The Scotsman.</i></p>
+
+<blockquote><p>'That Miss Cavell was guilty of an offence against martial law was
+not denied. But it was not a crime that implied any moral
+delinquency or transgression of the normal rules of human conduct.
+On the contrary, it was prompted by the spirit of self-sacrifice
+and mercy that had guided her whole life, but of which not the
+tiniest measure was yielded to herself by the men who pursued her
+to the death. While it may be said that she acted imprudently, and
+that punishment, and even severe punishment, for her offence was to
+be looked for, she acted from motives and under circumstances that
+could only raise her in the eyes of all who are capable of
+appreciating generosity, courage, and kindness. No suspicion of
+espionage was attached to her conduct; no accusation of that nature
+was brought against her; and on being charged with what she had
+done, she made full and frank acknowledgement. This candour of
+confession was turned against her as one of the aggravations<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> of
+her offence. It is made but too clear that the tribunal before
+which she was hurried thirsted for her blood and for the blood of
+all who were concerned in the escape of those prisoners from the
+tender mercies of the Brussels military authorities. Having already
+lain for several weeks in prison, Miss Cavell was brought before a
+court-martial, and after a two-days' trial was sentenced to death
+in the evening and led out to execution early next morning. There
+was a surreptitiousness as well as a vindictiveness about the whole
+proceedings that cannot but amaze, as well as horrify and disgust.'</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><i>The Irish Times.</i></p>
+
+<blockquote><p>'If any one in Ireland still fails to see the necessity for
+resisting to the utmost the extension of Prussian power in Europe,
+this should open his eyes. It will be equally admitted by every one
+but her executioners that her sex, her kindness to German wounded,
+and her charitable intentions in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> committing the undoubted offence
+against the law imposed upon Belgium by the conquerors should have
+been regarded as good reasons for treating her with leniency. All
+these considerations were ignored by the German authorities. Their
+haste to accomplish the foul deed without possibility of
+interference is not out of keeping with the worst that we know of
+savage races. In utter contrast with their proceedings, there was
+reported yesterday the hearing in a North of England town of an
+appeal by a woman charged with attempted espionage against a
+sentence of six months' imprisonment. The woman was of German
+descent; she had sought information concerning a shell factory, and
+she admitted that she would have passed it on to the Germans if
+possible. Her trial was fair and careful, and she had the fullest
+opportunity of securing legal advice at every stage. Her appeal was
+patiently heard. So it is with every case of the kind, whatever may
+be the nationality of the accused person. British justice has a
+name<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> throughout the world. Henceforth, so will German justice, but
+the name will be of other significance.'</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><i>The Nursing Mirror.</i></p>
+
+<blockquote><p>'The heroic and tragic death of Miss Edith Cavell has placed the
+martyr's crown on the head of this most courageous and patriotic
+woman, and has consecrated afresh the whole of the nursing
+profession for her sake in the eyes of the world. Never has the
+heart of the nation been more deeply stirred than by this crowning
+deed of infamy; never have the vials of its righteous indignation
+been poured forth in such a torrent of just anger. The whole of the
+civilized world has risen as one man to protest against this
+violation of all the laws of mercy and of judgement against this
+act by which Germany stands forth for all time alone, apart,
+leprous and unclean, among the people of the earth. Her words to
+the chaplain on the evening before her execution were those of
+quiet courage and resignation. Spoken in the stern solemnity<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> of
+that prison cell, with the sincerity that comes from the nearness
+of the eternal dawn, these words carry a force and conviction they
+might otherwise lack to every one of her fellow workers round the
+world, and are driven home to each heart like a nail fastened in a
+sure place.... This day of national adversity is our day of
+opportunity. In it may we be all "brave in peril, constant in
+tribulation, and in all changes of fortune, and down to the gates
+of death, loyal and loving one to another."'</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><i>The Lady's Pictorial.</i></p>
+
+<blockquote><p>'It is difficult to speak of the crime which has blotted the
+already foul page of Germany's infamy in constrained language. The
+whole civilized world stands aghast at the callous brutality and
+deceit of the German officials in Brussels who have done to death a
+noble Englishwoman; and words are impotent things in which to
+express the horror, the disgust, the fury, that this brave woman's
+murder has excited. Nor is it possible to deal in other<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> than
+conventional phrases with her splendid self-sacrifice. She has died
+for her country, but she has also won the martyr's crown. Her love
+for her country was boundless. To serve it she ran a risk the
+gravity of which she fully recognized, and she freely admitted that
+in so doing she had offended against military laws. We all know&mdash;it
+is written for all time on the pages of history&mdash;how she paid the
+penalty. There is no need to retell the shameful story, to extol
+further her splendid heroism, to waste breath in execrating the
+savages whose name is now besmirched beyond all cleansing; whose
+blood-thirst has been slaked at the heart of a helpless woman. But
+it is worth while&mdash;it cannot be too often repeated&mdash;to cry aloud
+that Edith Cavell died that her countrywomen may live. Who dared to
+ask what is one woman among the tens of thousands of men who have
+perished for their country in view of all that this heroic nurse's
+slaughter means to England? Dying in her country's service,
+sacrificed to the savagery of the most<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> treacherous, bestial,
+merciless enemy against which civilized peoples have ever had to
+fight, a victim to their lust of hate, she has left to Englishwomen
+an example and a message which must surely stir them to follow her,
+if need be, to death.'</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><i>The British Weekly.</i></p>
+
+<blockquote><p>'The Saxon name Edith, which is linked with the most ancient
+glories of English history, has acquired a new lustre through the
+sufferings of Edith Cavell. In every church on Sunday preachers
+sounded the praise of the loving, gentle woman who was shot by the
+Germans in Brussels in the dark of a mid-October night a few hours
+before the fleet of Zeppelins started on their flight towards
+London. Her only crime was that she furthered the escape from
+Belgium of her countrymen and their Allies. The shield clasped for
+their sake in her delicate hand was like the buckler of Arthur in
+Spenser's poem, "All of diamond perfect pure and cleene," and
+coming ages will see that it was hewn out of the adamant<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> rock.
+Amid the panoply of the martyrs her diamond shield will burn.'</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><i>The Catholic Times.</i></p>
+
+<blockquote><p>'Baron von Bissing, the German Governor-General of Belgium,
+recently addressing a meeting of German women in Brussels, said,
+"We must do our best to carry on here in Belgium a real German
+'Kultur' work." He has just given the world a proof of what the
+Germans can do for the promotion of "Kultur" in Belgium. It is a
+proof which has brought home fully to civilized people the truth
+that when the Germans are called barbarians there is no
+exaggeration in the charge. The shooting of women is a relic of
+barbarism abhorrent to the general feeling of the present day. The
+execution of Miss Cavell brings into relief once more the main
+characteristic of German warfare. Laws, civilized customs,
+honourable traditions, must give way if they obstruct German
+domination. A multitude of Belgians, male and female, have been put
+to death with as much<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> cruelty as was displayed towards Miss
+Cavell. It is needless to say that by revealing their true
+character during the War the Germans have been fighting most
+effectively against their own cause. The horror excited by their
+infamies is worth whole regiments of recruiting-sergeants. Not only
+in the countries at war with Germany, but amongst the populations
+of the neutral nations, it produces the firm belief that there
+could be no greater enemy of popular rights than Germany, and that
+the success of German "Kultur" work would blast civilization like a
+deadly blight.'</p></blockquote>
+
+<h4><span class="smcap">The Voice of France</span></h4>
+
+<p>The French Senate 'bowed with respect and profound emotion before the
+memory of this heroic martyr to duty, who sacrificed her life in the
+cause of patriotism and of eternal right'; and the French press glowed
+with magnificent tributes to the memory of the brave Englishwoman. One
+of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> most striking articles was that communicated to <i>L'Homme
+Enchaîné</i> by M. Clemenceau:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>'It was necessary that Miss Cavell, symbolizing in her heroic death
+and her simplicity an incalculable mass of awful butchery, should
+rise from her tomb to show the Germans that every soul of living
+humanity revolts with disgust against a cause which can only defend
+itself by a most cowardly assassination.</p>
+
+<p>'The profound truth is that she honoured her country in dying for
+that which is the finest in the human soul&mdash;the conscience of a
+grandeur of which the greater part of us dreams, and which only a
+few of the elect have a chance of realizing. This was the lot of
+Miss Cavell; driven to a wall by a detachment of riflemen, she was
+walking without a complaint, without a regret, being already no
+longer of this earth, when a physical faintness made her falter. To
+me it only makes her appear greater, since, combination of strength
+and weakness,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> she thus showed herself woman, purely woman, to the
+end. "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"&mdash;"My God, My God, why hast
+Thou forsaken Me?"&mdash;said Another on His cross, in a moment of
+weakness and distress by which the splendour of His sacrifice was
+increased.</p>
+
+<p>'Edith Cavell did not speak a word; she fell. Thereupon an officer,
+a representative gentleman of "Germany above everything," a
+delegate of the Emperor, and, through the Emperor, of "the old
+German God," carrying out his despicable task of butcher, calmly
+drew near, placed his revolver at the temple of his victim, pressed
+the trigger, and then, with his hand red with blood, signed to his
+"men," if such I may call them, that the work of Germania was done.
+We shall not forget the name of Miss Cavell, but we do not know, we
+never shall know, the name of the other. He calls himself a
+German&mdash;that is enough. Every other German would have claimed the
+honour of carrying out the same task. Since the day of Joan of Arc,
+to whose<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> memory I know that the British will one day wish to erect
+a statue, Great Britain has owed us this return. She has given it
+nobly.</p>
+
+<p>'Now the Eumenides are let loose&mdash;Miss Edith Cavell, murdered by a
+coward, will live among the men of all ages and of all countries
+with a life which, for a time of which one cannot foresee the end,
+will bring shame and torment on the people on whom her blood lies;
+and that the lesson may be lasting, I should like to see in Rome,
+Brussels, Nish, Paris, London, and Petrograd, as an indestructible
+memorial of a community of sentiment, a statue of this noble woman
+and of the German officer. It would be sufficient to take as a
+model the excellent drawing published by Abel Faivre in the <i>Echo
+de Paris</i>, in which that fine artist has indicated in a few strokes
+of sublime grandeur the nobility of the blessed victim, and,
+without forcing anything, the features of the assassin.</p>
+
+<p>'Those who come after us, and whose knowledge of the terrible
+realities of these<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> days will only be derived from cold,
+dispassionate words, must have before their eyes an image recalling
+the living facts: Edith Cavell and a Boche without name,
+representative of a people which, feeling the weight of universal
+opprobrium, has not found one spark of conscience from which to
+utter one word of protest.'</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><i>The Journal des Débats.</i></p>
+
+<blockquote><p>'Miss Cavell died like a heroine, like a true worthy daughter of
+England, the victim of those who would like to have killed her
+country, and who revenged themselves on a woman. The murder of Miss
+Cavell deserves to be avenged, and it will be, and in a manner more
+terrible than the Germans dream of. The soul of England and the
+soul of France are to-day united over the body of poor but glorious
+Miss Cavell in a most sacred oath.'</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><i>Intransigeant.</i></p>
+
+<blockquote><p>'The German who cold-bloodedly, without even the excuse of the
+passion of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> battle, judged, condemned, and executed Miss Cavell is
+a monster, a being who has placed himself voluntarily beyond the
+pale of human law. England, who has furnished us with so many
+causes for gratitude since the beginning of the War, now offers for
+our admiration a loyal, strong, and simple heroine. This winter at
+the feast of Joan of Arc English officers brought flowers to her
+statue. The French will not forget the great example of Edith
+Cavell. She has entered the eternal light which shines on the
+foreheads of heroines and martyrs. For centuries to come little
+children will spell her name, and learn in the story of her life
+lessons of courage.'</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<h4><span class="smcap">Dutch Protests</span></h4>
+
+<p>The German reign of terror just over their own borders the Dutch may
+accept as a menace and a warning to themselves; but the assassination of
+Nurse Cavell aroused the most emphatic denunciations of the crime.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>The Amsterdam Telegraaf.</i></p>
+
+<blockquote><p>'Under the fatherly government of Bissing, the Belgians at present
+have cause to envy the Parisians of 1793 in the Reign of Terror.
+Not a person is sure of his life, and certainly not an honest and
+brave person, for the German reign of terror seeks by frightful
+examples to make the whole of Belgium a nation of traitors and
+cowards. Love of country, which the Germans themselves claim to
+honour as the highest virtue, they punish in the enemy as the most
+frightful crime.</p>
+
+<p>'In the last fortnight were pronounced ten sentences of death and
+thirty-two of penal servitude for from ten to fifteen years. Among
+these death sentences were four women. We wrote once in this
+journal, "Holland is incapable of shuddering any more." We were
+wrong. The death penalty on a brave woman has caused the whole of
+this country to freeze with horror. Openly and unashamed Germany
+makes herself a nation of outlaws against whom in the future every
+possible<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> measure of reprisal must be counted as warranted.'</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><i>Nieuws Van Den Dag.</i></p>
+
+<blockquote><p>'What poor psychologists German officials and officers seem to be!
+They started with the request to the Belgian Government for free
+passage; they then overwhelmed the neutral press with one-sided
+reports regarding the <i>Lusitania</i> case and the visits of Zeppelins
+to undefended towns; finally, incidents of this sort! Everywhere
+they betray a lack of the most elementary conception of
+psychology.'</p></blockquote>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="XIV" id="XIV"></a>XIV</h2>
+
+<h3>AMERICA'S VERDICT</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="sc">Apart</span> from questions of common humanity, Americans are keenly interested
+in the tragical end of Edith Cavell because of the untiring services of
+the American Legation in Brussels, first to see that the accused had a
+fair trial, and, second, their desperate and heroic efforts to gain time
+in which to formulate a final appeal for clemency. The admiration of all
+true Americans must be excited by the account of the humane endeavours
+of their representatives, which lose not a jot because their appeals
+were made to a cold-blooded, ferocious tribunal that is a stranger to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span>
+compassion, and does not subscribe to the ordinary decencies of
+civilized life and practice.</p>
+
+<p>The following press comments indicate the unanimity of the note of
+detestation with which America views one of the greatest crimes of all
+time.</p>
+
+<p><i>New York Herald.</i></p>
+
+<blockquote><p>Under the heading 'Nana Sahib in Belgium' was foreshadowed the
+national abhorrence which will hold Germany to be the moral leper
+of civilization. Mr. Whitlock's report 'will cause a wave of horror
+to sweep over the world at the possibility of a nation which is
+capable of perpetrating such terrible deeds as a mere matter of
+military routine succeeding in this War and dominating Europe.</p>
+
+<p>'For the consolation of those weaklings who object to the execution
+of Miss Cavell it is announced that the black act was done
+according to German military law, and therefore "legal." So the
+slayings in Louvain, Dinant, and other blood-soaked<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> spots in
+Belgium were in accordance with military law, and therefore
+"legal." The sinking of the <i>Lusitania</i> was therefore similarly
+"legal." The desolation of Armenia was in accordance with Turkish
+military law, and therefore "legal." The order of Herod, if
+re-enacted by the military authorities of Germany, would be in
+accordance with German military law, and therefore "legal." But the
+civilized world would denounce it just as it denounced the Belgian,
+<i>Lusitania</i>, and Armenian slaughters, and as it is denouncing the
+execution of Miss Cavell.'</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><i>New York Times.</i></p>
+
+<blockquote><p>'In the great tribunal of civilization the Germans have done
+themselves immeasurable hurt by their savagery against those who
+opposed them. Putting the interests of State above the interests
+and rights of the individual, putting the ends Germany seeks to
+attain above all other things on earth, destroying the peace of the
+world, bringing on the bloodiest War in history,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> a War that has
+brought to their deaths millions of the people of Europe and
+threatens to impoverish great nations, all for the attainment of
+ends the world has denounced in themselves, and by means which too
+often have violated the foundation principles of humanity and
+justice, Germany has brought herself into a position where the
+world turns from her in horror, and dreads nothing so much as the
+success of her arms. Man's love of life, the chivalric sentiment of
+man for woman, tender consideration for the helplessness of age and
+of youth, all these she has maimed and bruised and defaced with her
+mailed fist, all these she has trampled under foot. The execution
+of Edith Cavell but carried out the spirit and purpose of the
+Imperial military policy.'</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><i>The Sun.</i></p>
+
+<blockquote><p>'In spite of the manifestations of "frightfulness" with which the
+record is already crowded, we are not willing to believe that
+chivalry to women is dead in the German<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> army. To the rank and file
+von Bissing can never be a hero. Doubtless his monstrous deed will
+be justified; nevertheless, it will sicken the soul of many an
+honest German officer. And the German women&mdash;for woman is true to
+her sex the world over&mdash;will deplore the fate imposed upon one who
+was the victim of her sympathies. Never has there been a war in
+which women have not played such a part as this Englishwoman did.</p>
+
+<p>'Indeed, to all Germans who have not been corrupted by Prussian
+militarism, the hurried, stealthy shooting of hapless Edith Cavell
+in the dead of night behind prison walls will always be a bitter
+memory. More than all the counts in the Bryce Report of atrocities
+in Belgium it will weigh in the scale of judgement, for it has
+struck the world with horror.'</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><i>The Tribune.</i></p>
+
+<blockquote><p>'Alive, Miss Cavell was but an offender against German military
+rules; dead, dead after summary conviction, dead under<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span>
+circumstances that give the incident the character of a midnight
+assassination and the colour of an atrocity, she becomes to all men
+of English blood a martyr and an inspiration to new patriotic
+devotion.</p>
+
+<p>'The thing is like the Zeppelin raids, it is like the Louvain
+slaughter, it is like the <i>Lusitania</i> massacre. The wrongs done to
+the women and children of a race do not terrify the men. They only
+serve to rouse the spirit, strengthen the arm, nerve the will.
+"Terribleness" is but the emptiest of threats and the weakest of
+weapons. There is something almost pathetic in the German dullness
+to the things that move the world. It begs, whines, pleads for the
+goodwill and the approval of neutral mankind. It stands almost as a
+suppliant for the alms of approval of other races. But in the same
+moment, without warning, without reason, without anything but an
+incomprehensible stupidity and folly, it does something that shocks
+the moral sense, the humanity, of men and women the world over.'</p></blockquote><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>Philadelphia Public Ledger.</i></p>
+
+<blockquote><p>'The Administration has a duty in this matter which it should not
+overlook. Miss Cavell, as a British subject, was under the
+protection of the American Legation. The American Minister made
+both an official and a personal request that her life might be
+spared. This request was not only refused, it was treated with
+contempt. Mr. Gibson's report is scrupulously restrained in
+language, but his indignation may easily be read between the lines.
+The sentence was carried out with a haste that emphasizes the
+insults to the United States; the procedure from the beginning was
+marked by insolence to its representatives. To let the matter drop
+here would be a confession that this country can neither protect
+its citizens' interests, nor those of other nations whose interests
+it has undertaken to guard.'</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><i>The Baltimore Sun.</i></p>
+
+<blockquote><p>'It is difficult to speak in temperate language of the execution of
+Edith Cavell.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> ... The world will pronounce this one of the
+crowning atrocities of cold-blooded brutality. It is impossible to
+think of it without horror, to speak of it without execration.'</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><i>The Chicago Tribune.</i></p>
+
+<blockquote><p>'The execution of Edith Cavell should and may be the cause of
+mental awakening on the part of those who have hitherto remained
+obstinately secure in the face of a world of terrors....
+Civilization is breaking faster and faster. How far the sword and
+torch will sweep no man can prophesy, but this we know&mdash;the
+American nation has given to the German Empire an offence greater
+than that furnished by Belgium, and has not as yet taken any step
+to protect itself from retribution.'</p></blockquote>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="XV" id="XV"></a>XV</h2>
+
+<h3>CONCLUSION</h3>
+
+
+<p>It may be urged against this simple chronicle of the life and death of
+Edith Cavell that an Englishman could be expected to approach the
+subject only in too heated and partisan a spirit to set forth the case
+dispassionately.</p>
+
+<p>There is no occasion to import factitious bitterness into the tragedy,
+which was born in prejudice, suckled in suspicion, and reared to its
+foul maturity on hatred. All the cogent and damning facts dealing with
+the arrest, trial, and death of the heroic Red Cross nurse are vouched
+for by the American Legation in Brussels; these facts<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> are embodied in
+the statements communicated by Mr. Whitlock to Mr. Page for transmission
+to Sir Edward Grey, and may be read in the British 'White Paper,'
+<i>Miscellaneous No. 17</i> (1915), entitled, 'Correspondence with the United
+States Ambassador respecting the execution of Miss Edith Cavell at
+Brussels.'</p>
+
+<p>The American Legation summed up the truth so far as the Germans would
+allow the truth to be made known&mdash;and it may be accepted that what
+details they permitted to escape from their net of secrecy and deceit
+would be only those that would enable them to put the best face on what
+they were pleased to consider merely a regrettable, but inevitable,
+incident of warfare.</p>
+
+<p>In this old world of ours, however, 'murder will out.' Whatever steps
+Potsdam cunning took to keep the secret in its own dark bosom, the
+enormity was disclosed to a scornful world, and the Germans found
+themselves in a common pillory upon which beat the fierce light of a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span>
+merciless criticism and well-merited opprobrium.</p>
+
+<p>The German authorities may be safely left to the judgement of
+fair-minded peoples; and in passing it may be remarked that civilized
+communities have an inherent regard for justice, even when it operates
+to their own immediate disadvantage. It would be a sorry world if it
+were otherwise; how sorry a few nations who consigned their honour to
+the melting-pot can make it, we know only too well. It would be sorrier
+still but for the firm conviction that in the end right will triumph
+over might, justice will prevail over injustice, encouraging us to look
+forward to the time when 'Civilization smiles; Liberty is glad; Humanity
+rejoices; and Pity exults.'</p>
+
+<p>When the welter of blood and the ruinous dissipation of treasure is at
+an end, and we can appraise our tangible losses in life and money and
+endeavour to form some conception of the moral gains resulting from the
+conflict, amid the innumerable individual deeds that make us proud of
+those of our<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> race the heroism in life and death of Edith Cavell will
+shine forth like a precious jewel.</p>
+
+<p>It is well to remember that 'of every tear that sorrowing mortals shed,
+some good is born, some gentler nature comes'; and in her death and the
+tears that we shed for it, the martyr leaves behind her an inestimable
+legacy that will yield rich dividends to humanize the souls of those who
+are left behind to admire and reverence the example of a noble woman.</p>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<p>When the foregoing paragraph was written, one's faith in the strength of
+our Empire and belief in the righteousness of our cause justified the
+sure knowledge that we had not witnessed the real conclusion of this
+pathetic soul-rending incident, that was without exact parallel in our
+varied Empire story; but one could only wait&mdash;and wonder.</p>
+
+<p>For three further searing years the war continued its desolating course,
+that entailed the death and mangling of millions of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> combatants and
+the expenditure of uncountable wealth.</p>
+
+<p>The end came with dramatic suddenness that almost paralysed the
+suffering nations, who could scarcely realize that intense courage,
+energy, and determination had at length given the Allies the victory.</p>
+
+<p>Even while the Germans stood at the bar of justice at the Peace
+Conference, Mother Empire decided the time had arrived to take Edith
+Cavell to her own broad bosom; and the dust of one of the most gallant
+women of our race was brought from Belgium to be reinterred under the
+shadow of Norwich Cathedral, in the county that must ever be proud that
+it gave her birth.</p>
+
+<p>From Dover the body of Nurse Cavell came through Kent towards the
+capital; the orchards were in full blossom, the fields golden with
+buttercups, every bank blue and white with wild flowers, as if England
+had put on her richest garment to receive her own.</p>
+
+<p>From Victoria Station the funeral <i>cortège</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> passed into the streets
+amid the wonderful stillness and silence of vast crowds, a tribute of
+silence that acclaimed the dead no less surely and splendidly than the
+living heroes of the war had been welcomed home by the heartfelt cheers
+of the multitude.</p>
+
+<p>To the roll of the drums, the stately tread of escorting Coldstreamers,
+the beautiful melody of funeral marches by the Scots and Welsh Guards'
+bands, the gun-carriage and its honoured burden came to Westminster
+Abbey, where, in the shadows of the dim old church, the first portion of
+the funeral ceremony was to be performed.</p>
+
+<p>A great congregation, representing all classes of society, had
+assembled, and the nursing profession and the various branches of the
+women's military services were largely in evidence. For fully half an
+hour the waiting gathering listened enraptured to entrancing and
+uplifting music of the Grenadier Guards' band.</p>
+
+<p>The last notes died away. Suddenly the assembly rose as Queen Alexandra
+was ushered to her seat. With her was Princess<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> Victoria; and the King
+was represented by the Earl of Athlone.</p>
+
+<p>A few moments later the strains of Chopin's funeral march could be heard
+outside the Abbey, betokening the arrival of the <i>cortège</i>; and then
+beautiful voices echoed and re-echoed through aisle and transept as the
+choir met the coffin, which progressed slowly from the great west door
+towards the catafalque that waited to receive its noble burden. Tall
+Guardsmen bore shoulder high the coffin, covered with the Union Jack,
+which Edith Cavell had honoured with her life. To rest upon the glorious
+colours Queen Alexandra had sent a magnificent wreath of red and white
+carnations and arum lilies, to which an autograph card was attached upon
+which she had written:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>In memory of our brave, heroic, never-to-be-forgotten Nurse Cavell.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Life's race well run,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Life's work well done,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Life's crown well won,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Now comes rest.<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">From <span class="smcap">Alexandra</span>.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The service was marked by severe simplicity that savoured nothing of
+exultation over a fallen foe; and yet there was the beautiful exultation
+that belongs essentially to the Church of England Order for the Burial
+of the Dead, which proceeded with tense emotion until the congregation
+and choir united in singing 'Abide with me.' The Dean pronounced the
+blessing.</p>
+
+<p>The Dead March from <i>Saul</i> was played with all the poignant appeal of
+rolling and booming drums, wailing reeds, and the triumphant clangour of
+brass. The 'Last Post,' heralded by a roll of drums, commencing so
+softly as scarcely to be audible, swelled to a roar before it died into
+the silence, on which broke the bugles; and last the 'Réveillé.'</p>
+
+<p>Out of the shadows of the centuries into the sunlit street the
+flower-decked coffin was borne by the eight Guardsmen bearers to be
+replaced on the gun-carriage, which passed through the crowded City to
+Liverpool Street Station, <i>en route</i> for Norwich, and every yard of the
+way there was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> evidence that the spirit of Edith Cavell was living in
+the throngs who mourned her loss, even as they honoured her sacrifice.</p>
+
+<p>Later in the day came the final scenes in the obsequies of Edith Cavell
+at Norwich Cathedral, where the ashes of the world-famous victim of an
+unchivalrous foe had come home for sepulture in an atmosphere of
+intimate and almost personal concern. The citizens turned out in tens of
+thousands. Every department of the civic life of the county was
+represented, but again the nurses were in the forefront of the picture.
+Wreaths came from near and far, and among not a few from Belgium was one
+inscribed 'Elizabeth, Reine des Belges.'</p>
+
+<p>The tribute of Empire had already been paid in London, and the closing
+ceremony was more in keeping with the sweet simplicity of her who was
+being laid to rest by the side of her mother amid the peaceful and
+mellow surroundings of the ancient Close, in a sequestered little corner
+called 'Life's Green.'</p>
+
+<p>At the graveside the Bishop of Norwich<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> delivered a touching address, in
+which he dwelt more upon the manner of Nurse Cavell's death rather than
+the work of her life. In conclusion he said:</p>
+
+<p>'Edith Cavell rests under the shade of our cathedral in its
+eight-hundredth year, adding one more to the long line of those blessed
+saints of God over whom it has watched in life and death. We will think
+of her while her body rests in its keeping as herself alive unto God and
+present with the Lord, and we will look on to the glad day when she and
+we and all we love, having waited and watched for the glory of the
+Resurrection, at last shall see</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The splendour of the morning<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Dawn on the hills.'<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<hr class="full tight" />
+
+<p>Printed by the Southampton Times Company, Ltd., 70 Above Bar</p>
+
+<hr class="full tight" />
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Noble Woman, by Ernest Protheroe
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Noble Woman, by Ernest Protheroe
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: A Noble Woman
+       The Life-Story of Edith Cavell
+
+Author: Ernest Protheroe
+
+Release Date: January 26, 2011 [EBook #35075]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A NOBLE WOMAN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Steven Gibbs, Richard J. Shiffer and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+  A NOBLE WOMAN
+
+  The Life-Story of
+  EDITH CAVELL
+
+  By
+  ERNEST PROTHEROE
+  Author of 'In Empire's Cause.' &c., &c.
+
+  'I will give thee a crown of life.'
+
+  London
+  THE EPWORTH PRESS
+  J. ALFRED SHARP
+
+
+  _First Edition, January, 1916_
+  _Second Edition, September, 1916_
+  _Third Edition, January, 1918_
+  _Fourth Edition, May, 1918_
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+  CHAP.                                             PAGE
+
+     I. INTRODUCTION                                   7
+
+    II. THE HEEL OF THE OPPRESSOR                     17
+
+   III. THE ARREST                                    29
+
+    IV. SPINNING THE TOILS                            37
+
+     V. THE SECRET TRIAL                              44
+
+    VI. THE FIGHT FOR A LIFE                          52
+
+   VII. THE BLOOD OF THE MARTYR                       63
+
+  VIII. IN MEMORIAM                                   73
+
+    IX. BRITISH OFFICIAL REPROBATION                  89
+
+     X. GERMANY'S CYNICAL DEFENCE                     99
+
+    XI. JUSTICE AND SAVAGERY CONTRASTED              108
+
+   XII. PULPIT AND PEN UNITE IN DENUNCIATION         114
+
+  XIII. THE LASH OF THE WORLD'S PRESS                128
+
+   XIV. AMERICA'S VERDICT                            159
+
+    XV. CONCLUSION                                   167
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+Edith Louisa Cavell was born in 1866 at the country rectory of
+Swardeston, near Norwich, of which parish her father, the Rev. Frederick
+Cavell, was rector for forty years. In that pleasant sunny house the
+little girl passed her early days in uneventful happiness, for
+Swardeston had few interests apart from the obscurities of its own rural
+retirement.
+
+The rector, who was a kindly man at heart, but firm to the point of
+sternness where his duty was concerned, ruled his home with evangelical
+strictness. His daughter Edith was a thoughtful child; and her
+unfailing consideration for others and her concern for their welfare
+caused her to be beloved by everybody. But the child's innate gentleness
+was tinged with a sense of duty remarkable in one of her years, which
+characteristic was the undoubted outcome of her father's precept and
+example.
+
+Edith Cavell's education was as thorough as her parents could contrive;
+and, apart from mere scholarship, her outlook was widened by being sent
+to a school at Brussels.
+
+When the Rev. Frederick Cavell died, the family removed from Swardeston
+to Norwich, and Edith decided to adopt the profession of nursing the
+sick poor. To that end on September 3, 1895, she entered the London
+Hospital as a probationer, and remained in that great institution for
+nearly five years. From the first, by her unselfish devotion to duty she
+endeared herself to her colleagues and patients alike. Part of the time
+she was staff nurse in the 'Mellish' Ward; and when the authorities
+sent her to Maidstone at the great outbreak of typhoid in that town, she
+did excellent work.
+
+Later, Miss Cavell was appointed to the post of night superintendent at
+St. Pancras Infirmary, where she remained for three years; then she
+migrated to Shoreditch Infirmary to act as assistant superintendent. As
+evidence of her more than ordinarily wide experience, it should be
+stated that for a time she worked at Fountain Hospital, Lower Tooting,
+under the Metropolitan Asylums Board; and for nine months she acted
+temporarily as matron of the Ashton New Road District Home, Manchester.
+
+In all these varied spheres of activity Nurse Cavell proved herself not
+only a capable nurse, but she became a clever, painstaking teacher, able
+to illustrate her eloquent lectures by means of her own facile and
+useful diagrams. Many nurses acknowledge their indebtedness to her lucid
+teaching, and are proud to claim their one-time association with one
+whose devotion and energy made her an ornament of a noble profession.
+
+The sense of duty, which in the child was indicated so plainly, in after
+years developed into almost a religion. Every one with whom Miss Cavell
+came in contact speedily understood that she placed duty before either
+friendship or personal comfort. Her hospital training had taught her the
+value of discipline, and she would never tolerate inefficiency, or any
+tendency towards slackness, in her subordinates. As a surgical nurse her
+skill was remarkable; but her undoubted _forte_ was the power of
+organization, which is almost rare compared to mere cleverness in the
+technical details of nursing.
+
+Her absorption in her calling and her outwardly stern and reserved
+demeanour sometimes caused Nurse Cavell to be misunderstood; but those
+who were fortunate enough to serve under her quickly came to learn to
+admire her, equally as a nurse and a kind woman. Her expressive eyes
+were an index to her overflowing sympathy; and her fellow nurses found
+themselves impelled to take their troubles and difficulties to her, sure
+of a patient hearing and tactful and sympathetic advice.
+
+In 1906 Miss Cavell was offered and accepted the position of matron of a
+surgical and medical home in Brussels, which had been founded by
+Monsieur de Page. This enlightened and enthusiastic Belgian doctor was
+impressed by the need of a better knowledge of hygiene and aseptic
+methods, of which through no fault of their own the nursing sisters in
+Belgium were generally ignorant.
+
+Nurse Cavell's new post was one that called for the utmost discretion,
+for she was an Englishwoman and a Protestant, engaging in work which
+hitherto was practically a monopoly of the Roman Catholic religious
+sisterhood. But even inborn prejudice, and in some cases positive
+enmity, could not long hold out against Miss Cavell's professional
+skill, backed up by her charm of manner; and in quite a short time she
+was as popular with the Belgian staff and patients as had always proved
+to be the case in her English experience.
+
+The establishment of a training school for nurses was a bold experiment,
+for Belgian women of good birth and education were accustomed to look
+upon earning their own living as a loss of caste.
+
+The English nurse was fully aware of the difficulties with which she had
+to contend, and resolutely set herself to combat them. Soon she had five
+pupils, who commenced their work on recognized lines. Their uniform
+consisted of blue cotton dresses, high white aprons with white linen
+sleeves to cover the forearm, which was bare beneath, 'Sister Dora' caps
+without strings, and white collars. 'The contrast,' wrote Miss Cavell to
+the _Nursing Mirror_, 'the probationers present to the nuns in their
+heavy stuff robes, and the lay nurses in their grimy apparel, is the
+contrast of the unhygienic past with the enlightened present. These
+Belgian probationers in three years' time will look back on the first
+days of trial with wonder.'
+
+By April, 1908, the probationers had increased to thirteen; and by 1912
+the number was thirty-two. Some of the members of the staff were English
+nurses who had worked in the London Hospital or the Shoreditch
+Infirmary. They not only assisted in training the probationers, but also
+attended the private patients in the Nursing Home which was attached to
+the school.
+
+Miss Cavell's school met with the warm approval of the Queen of the
+Belgians, who was quick to realize the value of trained nursing in
+Brussels. When Queen Elizabeth broke her arm a few years ago she did not
+hesitate to have it attended to by the nurses at the Home. Her Majesty's
+action was an exceedingly valuable tribute to the institution and the
+Englishwoman at its head. It gave public opinion a lead that caused the
+School and Home to be viewed favourably, where, perhaps, hitherto the
+new departure had been deprecated, if only because it was considered to
+be an unnecessary rival of the nuns and lay nurses, who worked under
+religious vows.
+
+The Queen came to hold a very sincere regard for Miss Cavell, and it is
+certain that the feeling was reciprocated. Little did the royal patient
+and the English nurse then imagine that within but a few short years
+they would figure together in adversity, in their respective spheres, as
+two of the most pathetic heroines in modern history.
+
+Quiet and unassuming, yet determined and courageous, Nurse Cavell
+continued her good work, which was bound to have a marked effect on the
+future of the Belgian nursing profession. She herself declared that 'the
+spread of light and knowledge is bound to follow in years to come. The
+nurses will not only teach, as none others have the opportunity of
+doing, the laws of health and the prevention and healing of disease;
+they will show their countrywomen that education and position do not
+constitute a bar to an independent life; they are rather a good and
+solid foundation on which to build a career which demands the best and
+highest qualities that womanhood can offer.'
+
+In acting as directress of three hospitals, Miss Cavell found full scope
+even for her unusual organizing capabilities. In addition to her arduous
+lectures throughout the day, she gave four lectures to the doctors and
+two to the nurses every week. She always attended at the
+operating-theatre herself. One of her greatest pleasures was the
+children's ward, decorated in blue and white after her own design; she
+made a special point of visiting the little inmates every evening. The
+better class of Belgians paid for the services of the private staff of
+nurses, but the call of the poor never went unheeded.
+
+Although Miss Cavell was intensely happy in her work in Brussels, she
+always looked forward with positive joy to visiting her aged mother,
+with whom she spent every possible holiday in England. In the summer of
+1914 mother and daughter were enjoying one of these affectionate
+reunions.
+
+Suddenly the great war-cloud burst. Edith Cavell was in her mother's
+garden weeding a bed of heartsease when she heard the news. She needed
+no heart-searching to decide where her duty lay; and, without
+hesitation, she returned hotfoot to Belgium, where she had an intuition
+that she would be wanted.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+THE HEEL OF THE OPPRESSOR
+
+
+When Germany had disclosed her infamous designs against the neutrality
+of Belgium, followed by her declaration of war against France, succeeded
+in a few hours by the entry of Great Britain into the fray, Miss
+Cavell's intuition of trouble became an absolute and appalling fact,
+with the positive certainty that war's ghastly harvest would mean work
+for nurses in Brussels.
+
+Forthwith the Berkendael Medical Institute became a Red Cross Hospital,
+of which Miss Cavell was _directrice_, with a number of English and
+Belgian nurses under her charge. Others of her training staff and some
+of the school probationers were in a board school, which had been
+rapidly converted into another hospital. Some of the nurses of the
+Training Institute were of German nationality, and these sorrowfully
+made a hasty departure for the Dutch frontier, carrying only hand
+luggage, which was all that they were allowed to take. Miss Cavell was
+sorry to have to send them away, but they would have been in a most
+invidious position if they had remained in an enemy capital towards
+which the German army was ruthlessly hacking its way.
+
+Although there was every indication of the extreme danger of Belgium,
+none could foresee the inexpressible agony that awaited her. How utterly
+Miss Cavell herself failed to realize the impending doom of the heroic
+little nation was shown in her letter of August 12, 1914, which she
+addressed to the Editor of _The Times_:
+
+     'Sir,
+
+     'I notice that there is a big movement on for the establishment of
+     Red Cross Hospitals in England. In the natural course of things
+     these will get almost exclusively naval men, whereas the army
+     wounded will have to be dealt with on the Continent, and, as far as
+     can be seen at present, mainly at Brussels.
+
+     'Our institution, comprising a large staff of English nurses, is
+     prepared to deal with several hundreds, and the number is being
+     increased day by day. May I beg, on behalf of my institution, for
+     subscriptions from the British public, which may be forwarded with
+     mention of the special purpose, to H.B.M.'s Consul at Brussels?
+
+     'Thanking you in anticipation, I am yours obediently,
+
+                                'E. CAVELL,
+                    '_Directrice_ of the Berkendael Medical
+                                    Institute, Brussels.
+
+     'Ambulance 53,
+      'Rue de la Culture, 149, Bruxelles,
+        'August 12, 1914.'
+
+Probably Miss Cavell learned later that the big movement in England to
+which she referred not only provided for our wounded soldiers from
+France and Belgium, but also distant Gallipoli, when that region became
+embroiled in the almost world-wide War.
+
+Events moved with startling rapidity. It was on August 4 that the German
+troops commenced to swarm across the Belgian frontier. Liege was
+attacked with a fury and violence that fortresses hitherto considered
+practically impregnable could not withstand. Only eight days after the
+dispatch of her letter to _The Times_ the heroic English nurse witnessed
+the entry of 20,000 Germans into Brussels.
+
+'News came,' she wrote to the _Nursing Mirror_, 'that the Belgians, worn
+out and weary, were unable to hold back the oncoming host.... In the
+evening (August 20) came word that the enemy were at the gates. At
+midnight bugles were blowing, summoning the civic guard to lay down
+their arms and leave the city.... As we went to bed our only consolation
+was that in God's good time right and justice must prevail.'
+
+Although Nurse Cavell was an Englishwoman, and her sympathies were
+claimed for the people within whose gates she had laboured for eight
+years, her great heart could feel compassion for the physical sufferings
+of the invaders, for the article continued: 'Many more troops came
+through. From our road we could see the long procession, and when the
+halt was called at midday some were too weary to eat, and slept on the
+pavement in the street. We were divided between pity for these poor
+fellows, far from their country and their people, suffering the
+weariness and fatigue of an arduous campaign, and hate of a cruel and
+vindictive foe bringing ruin and desolation to a prosperous and peaceful
+land.'
+
+From that date Nurse Cavell was cut off from the outside world.
+Enveloped in the fog of war, nothing was heard of her for eight months,
+although she had arranged to act as special correspondent to the
+_Nursing Mirror_. Not until the month of April was another and last
+communication received. It was dated March 29, 1915, but was not
+delivered in London until seventeen days later, when it came to hand in
+a dilapidated condition and without any outward sign that it had
+undergone inspection by the Censor. The article cannot be quoted at full
+length, but a few paragraphs of it vividly depict the conditions of life
+under the iron heel of a relentless conqueror:
+
+'From the day of the occupation till now we have been cut off from the
+world outside. Newspapers were first censored, then suppressed, and are
+now printed under German auspices; all coming from abroad were for a
+time forbidden, and now none are allowed from England....
+
+'The once busy and bustling streets are very quiet and silent; so are
+the people who were so gay and communicative in the summer. No one
+speaks to his neighbour in the tram, for he may be a spy. Besides, what
+news is there to tell, and who has the heart to gossip?
+
+'I am but a looker-on after all, for it is not my country whose soil is
+desecrated and whose sacred places are laid waste. I can only feel the
+deep and tender pity of the friend within the gates, and observe with
+sympathy and admiration the high courage and self-control of a people
+enduring a long and terrible agony.'
+
+Edith Cavell had anticipated that there would be work for her in
+Brussels. She found it in abundance, first in nursing wounded Belgians,
+succeeded by an influx of suffering Germans, for the new authorities
+allowed her to continue her work; and in due course numbers of English
+and French soldiers came under her ministering care. And be it noted
+that to be wounded was a sure passport to the great heart of the English
+nurse. Even the injured invaders were tended with impartial care, in
+accordance with the great tenet of the Red Cross nursing creed, that
+suffering humanity shall know no distinctions, whether friend or foe,
+their necessities calling for the same single-minded devotion.
+
+Miss Bertha Bennet Burleigh relates that she spent a pleasant half-hour
+with Miss Cavell, whom she met by chance shortly after the German
+occupation. In conversation the lady journalist learned that the nurses
+in the various nursing institutions had been requested to give an
+undertaking that they would also act as guards of the wounded. Miss
+Cavell said, 'We are prepared to do all we can to help them to recover
+from their wounds, but to be their jailers, never!' A German general
+smote the table with his clenched fist when the nurse gave her emphatic
+reply, but he could not cow her indomitable will. 'He looked,' Sister
+Edith afterwards told one of her colleagues, 'as if he would like to
+shoot me dead.' From that day onwards the German authorities commenced
+to deal harshly with the British Red Cross nurses who were in their
+power.
+
+There is evidence available to prove that many Germans had occasion to
+bless the good offices of Nurse Cavell; and from all who passed through
+her hands she won the most profound esteem, which in itself was a cause
+of offence to the German authorities, who knew that they themselves were
+just as cordially detested.
+
+But Edith Cavell's greatest offence lay in the fact that she was an
+Englishwoman, heroic daughter of the race that no specious promise or
+bribe could tempt from the path of honour; that could not view its
+treaty signature as a 'scrap of paper,' whose 'contemptible little army'
+had played a dramatic part in hurling back the Germans when Paris was
+literally in their mailed grasp; and that had succeeded in locking the
+once weak line of the Allies, which now forbade approach to the Channel
+ports of France from which a royal bully had proposed to attack the
+shores of England.
+
+Baron von Bissing had been appointed Governor-General of Belgium, and
+forthwith he had commenced to terrorize the inhabitants. Brussels was
+plastered with proclamations calculated to make life scarcely worth
+living. One of them in particular forbade any person to assist subjects
+of countries at war with Germany to leave Belgium.
+
+It is not quite certain whether Baron von Bissing ever came in personal
+contact with Miss Cavell, but it is positive that she became suspect to
+some of his emissaries, who promptly set about weaving a web for her
+undoing. It did not take long for clever German spies to ascertain that
+the English nurse had supplied British, French, and Belgian refugees
+with food, clothing, and money, and had connived, if not actually
+assisted, in their escape across the frontier into Holland.
+
+No purpose would be served by attempting to deny that there was in
+existence a Band of Mercy whose object it was to smuggle fugitives out
+of Belgium. The members of this secret organization included Prince
+Reginald and Princess Marie de Croy of Belignies, the Comtesse de
+Belleville, a French abbe, Mademoiselle Thulier, M. Philippe Bancq, a
+Belgian architect, and others. It may be stated that the Princess is
+partly of English extraction, and her arrest caused the death of her
+English grandmother as a result of shock and subsequent illness. The
+Comtesse de Belleville belongs to the French nobility through her
+father, while her mother, the Vicomtesse d'Hendecourt, is Belgian. She
+spent much of her time in Belgium, devoting herself largely to
+charitable work, and when war broke out she came to the aid of her
+distressed compatriots.
+
+Nurse Cavell undoubtedly participated in these simple acts of humanity
+which the Germans construed into 'crimes.' She permitted her hospital to
+be used in the chain of rest-houses by means of which fugitives escaped
+detection and capture, as they were passed from point to point towards
+their golden enfranchisement across the Dutch frontier. Admittedly Miss
+Cavell did wrong in setting the German military law at defiance, but it
+was the policy of German 'frightfulness' that was her justification.
+The enemy army violated their own treaty obligations, and had plundered,
+burnt, slaughtered, and ravished a helpless people in a manner that had
+not been conceivable in this twentieth century. Edith Cavell's contact
+with wounded soldiers had afforded her first-hand information concerning
+the brutal atrocities of which the invaders were guilty, and doubtless
+gave rise to a passionate desire to enable any wounded British
+compatriot, Belgian or French friend, to escape from the common peril.
+
+For nearly a whole year Nurse Cavell continued her work, one supreme and
+unbroken test of the heroic spirit with which she was imbued. It was
+wonderful that her God-given befriending of refugees should have escaped
+detection so long; but at length the German Administration in Belgium
+verified some of the escapes of men from their iron thrall, and Edith
+Cavell was wrenched from her hospital by soldiers and put in prison.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+THE ARREST
+
+
+On the evening of August 5 Nurse Cavell was engaged in binding lint on
+the wound of one of the invaders, when a peremptory knock on the door
+resounded through the quiet hospital. Not waiting for admission, half a
+dozen German soldiers burst open the door with the butt-ends of their
+rifles and entered the ward. Without preamble the corporal in charge
+seized Miss Cavell roughly, and commenced to drag her away from his
+wounded compatriot to whom she ministered.
+
+The Englishwoman did not quail before this uncouth representative of
+'Kultur,' but with calmness and dignity demanded to know the reason of
+the brutal exhibition of authority. The bullying corporal's instructions
+evidently included nothing in the way of explanation. He considered a
+cuff to be the best means of meeting the situation; and forthwith he
+marched her through the gathering gloom to the military prison of St.
+Gilles.
+
+The German authorities made no public announcement of the arrest of the
+English nurse or any of her alleged associates. In all probability at
+first they maintained secrecy in the hope of being able to incriminate
+other suspects, and thus make a clean sweep of an agency that had
+attempted to lift by the fraction of an inch the iron heel that was
+grinding out the life of suffering Belgium.
+
+Three weeks elapsed before Edith Cavell's relatives in England heard of
+her arrest from a chance traveller who had come to England from Belgium.
+The news was communicated to the Foreign Office, and on August 26 Sir
+Edward Grey requested Mr. Page, the United States Ambassador in London,
+to make inquiry of the United States Minister at Brussels whether the
+arrest of Miss Cavell was an actual fact, and, if so, the reason
+assigned for it.
+
+In the interval the German authorities were hard at work in securing
+evidence, not merely to justify the arrest, but to provide plausible
+excuse for the execution of the prisoner, which later sinister mockeries
+of justice proved to have been a foregone conclusion from the
+commencement.
+
+It is believed that not only did German spies ransack Belgium for
+evidence, but some even visited Norwich to interrogate Miss Cavell's
+friends, to trace her movements, and, if possible, to intercept her
+correspondence. But even then the testimony against the prisoner
+aggregated but a sorry charge of presenting a great-coat to an ill-clad
+man, a glass of water to a thirsty pilgrim, and small coins to persons
+who were being hunted for their lives. There was a fear that these
+'crimes' would be insufficient to secure a conviction on a capital
+charge. There was no time to ferret out any real damning testimony, and
+so the jailers of the English nurse fell back upon the method of
+attempting to convict her out of her own mouth.
+
+It requires to be accentuated that Miss Cavell, apart from her
+profession, was a well-read woman. She knew more than a little of modern
+German philosophy, and had come to believe that the triumph of
+Prussianism would result in the collapse of Christianity. Once, when she
+was expressing some such view, a friend inquired whether it was prudent.
+'Prudent?' she exclaimed, with reproach in her eyes. 'In times like
+these, when terror makes might seem right, there is a higher duty than
+prudence.' And as she was a woman who would not count the cost of
+clinging to her standards, she was little likely to hide her opinions
+when confronted by the enemy.
+
+It is a prime feature of English justice that the veriest felon need not
+incriminate himself; nay, he is specifically warned that any statement
+he makes may be used as evidence against him. Practically he is reminded
+of the old legal axiom that a man who is his own lawyer has a fool for a
+client, with the consequent advisability to bridle his tongue against
+any unwise admission. The conception of German justice in Brussels was
+the converse, and the accusers of the Red Cross representative of a
+hated race deliberately laid snares for the extortion of the evidence
+they required.
+
+The course of procedure was terribly reminiscent of the methods of the
+old Spanish Inquisition. True, Miss Cavell was not subjected to actual
+physical torture, but the mental strain was calculated to break down
+anything in the nature of obstinacy. With diabolical cunning she was cut
+off from communication with the world outside the jail as completely as
+if she were dead, lest any whisper of warning to guard her tongue might
+reach her from outside; and often she had to face interrogation by
+brutal and implacable enemies, who sought not to do her justice, but
+only to assure her condemnation.
+
+It is a comfort to believe that Miss Cavell's keen perception and her
+knowledge of German unscrupulousness enabled her to realize the
+inevitable end that awaited her, thus saving her from carking
+speculation that might have unhinged her reason. With Christian
+fortitude she grasped the inestimable boon of resignation, fully assured
+that 'death is the liberator of him whom freedom cannot release, and the
+comforter of him whom time cannot console.'
+
+Really the secrecy of her arrest and imprisonment and the precautions
+taken for her utter isolation were scarcely worth the trouble the crafty
+conspirators had taken, for Nurse Cavell took up a simple and heroic
+position that greatly simplified matters from the German standpoint. She
+was not an inexperienced girl, she was a noble woman of clever
+intellect, and had never been in doubt of the penalty she might incur by
+succouring compatriots and friends in distress in defiance of the
+German military code.
+
+Inspired in her perilous work by the dictates of purest humanity, which
+has been the glory of women of all nations in all ages, she boldly
+avowed to her accusers that she had nothing to conceal. The last thing
+to have entered her mind would have been to attempt to mitigate her
+offence by lying; she would not even palter with disingenuousness. Not
+only did she admit the charges against her, but she related incidents
+about which her inquisitors had but the most fragmentary particulars, or
+even only flimsy suspicions. She did not hesitate to supply dates and
+details for which the spies had sought in vain.
+
+It is impossible to tell when Miss Cavell first became aware that a
+considerable number of her friends were under arrest. In any case during
+her long incarceration in prison and the numerous interrogations she had
+to undergo in order to elicit the admissions to construct the case
+against her, she scrupulously avoided the implication of other persons.
+No brutality, no wheedling, no bribe, could ever have made that brave
+soul disloyal by word or deed to any of her associates.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+SPINNING THE TOILS
+
+
+The Germans have asserted that Edith Cavell's arrest, trial, and
+punishment were necessary as a warning, especially to others of her sex,
+that enterprises conducing to the disadvantage of their army were
+punishable with death. It is sufficient commentary upon this claim to
+remember that Baron von Bissing caused the English nurse to be arrested
+in secret and tried _in camera_, when publicity was a prime necessity if
+her case was to act as a warning to others.
+
+The arrest took place on August 5, but the fact was carefully
+concealed--and the significant reason is not far to seek. Germany had
+agreed that all British civil subjects in Belgium, so long as the
+German army occupied the country, were under the protection of the
+United States Minister. Baron von Bissing's paramount duty was to notify
+Miss Cavell's arrest without delay to Mr. Brand Whitlock, the American
+Minister in Brussels.
+
+This obviously honourable course found no place in von Bissing's
+villanous scheme of vengeance. If he could avoid it, he had no intention
+of allowing his English prisoner the benefit of neutral protection. But
+news of the arrest did in due course reach the American Legation, and
+Mr. Whitlock at once commenced to make inquiries, in which he was
+assisted by Mr. Hugh Gibson, his secretary, and Maitre G. de Leval, a
+Belgian advocate and legal adviser to the Legation.
+
+On August 31 Mr. Whitlock wrote to Baron von der Lancken, the German
+Political Minister in Brussels, asking whether it was true that Miss
+Edith Cavell had been arrested. If so, the reasons for the arrest were
+requested, and the German judicial authorities were asked to allow M.
+de Leval to interview the prisoner and make arrangements for her
+defence.
+
+Baron von der Lancken having vouchsafed no answer to the American
+Minister, Mr. Whitlock reiterated his request on September 10, which
+elicited a reply that was delivered on the 21st. It was ominously
+suggestive that the Baron had dated his letter September 12, obviously a
+crafty subterfuge to palliate the delay, which was all part and parcel
+of a treacherous intention to deceive those who had the temerity to
+desire that justice be done to Nurse Cavell.
+
+The Baron's letter stated that the accused admitted that she had
+facilitated the departure from Belgium of British, French, and Belgians
+of military age. Her defence was in the hands of Advocate Braun, who was
+in touch with the competent German authorities. The missive ended with
+the statement that for M. de Leval to be permitted to visit Miss Cavell,
+so long as she was in solitary confinement, would be contrary to the
+principles of the Department of the Governor-General.
+
+Promptly the American Legation wrote to M. Braun, requesting him to
+attend at the Legation in order that he might afford details of the
+accusation made against his client, and further to consort arrangements
+for her defence.
+
+Although time was now pressing, seven weeks having elapsed since the
+arrest, Braun wasted several more days before he put in an appearance at
+the Legation, which certainly indicated no energetic interest in the
+unfortunate prisoner. This casual attitude became understandable as by
+degrees the German plot disclosed itself. It was amazing with what a web
+of deception the Department of the Governor-General considered it
+necessary to weave about one poor weak woman, evasions, chicanery, and
+callousness summing up a cold-blooded villany of purpose without
+parallel in the annals of any nation subscribing to the most elementary
+principles of humanity, leaving justice altogether out of the question.
+
+Braun's next tardy step was to inform the American Legation that 'owing
+to unforeseen circumstances' he was unable to act further on behalf of
+Miss Cavell, whose personal friends had besought his assistance; but he
+had arranged for M. Sadi Kirschen, another Belgian lawyer, to defend the
+prisoner.
+
+There was thus a fresh delay while M. de Leval got into communication
+with Kirschen, a meeting with whom provided but very cold comfort. The
+legal adviser to the American Legation was astounded to learn that the
+prisoner's new advocate was ignorant of the details of the charges
+against her; for the German military code did not permit him to see his
+client before the trial, and he was not allowed to inspect any documents
+in connexion with the case.
+
+When M. de Leval announced that he himself would attend the trial,
+Kirschen strongly deprecated any such course. He asserted that the
+judges would not approve of the presence of a neutral spectator, and
+they might show their annoyance by delivering a judgement more severe
+than otherwise would be the case. M. de Leval, not desiring to prejudice
+the prisoner in any way, did not persist in his intention to be present
+at the trial. He had to rely upon Kirschen's statement that the tribunal
+would act with fairness, and that a miscarriage of justice was a very
+remote possibility. Kirschen further explained that these trials of
+suspects generally developed so slowly that, as the charges against Miss
+Cavell were disclosed, he would be able to elaborate the best possible
+defence.
+
+In view of later events it is evident that Kirschen was but a cog in the
+wheel of German 'rightfulness'; but at the time there was nothing in his
+demeanour or his expressions of opinion to cause one to suspect his
+genuineness. But it goes without saying that if M. de Leval had evinced
+the utmost determination to attend the trial, the Department of the
+Governor-General would have found means to prevent the presence of an
+unbiased spectator of their clandestine and insincere method of
+'justice.'
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+THE SECRET TRIAL
+
+
+The trial of Edith Cavell took place behind an almost impenetrable veil
+of secrecy. A fortnight after the execution of the victim certain German
+newspapers printed an account that was mainly a brief for the
+prosecution, while the accused were put in as unfavourable a light as
+possible. Fortunately an eye-witness afterwards afforded M. de Leval
+additional details, by which we are enabled to picture the scene with
+tolerable certainty; and surely never since Joan of Arc faced the
+corrupt Bishop of Beauvais has the light of heaven looked down on a more
+merciless and brutal caricature of law and justice.
+
+The secret court-martial was held in the Brussels Senate House, where
+thirty-five persons were charged with similar offences. The judges'
+names were not made public. Of the accused, the principal were Edith
+Cavell and Princess Marie de Croy, the Comtesse de Belleville and
+Mademoiselle Thulier, and M. Philippe Bancq. Prince Reginald de Croy did
+not stand his trial, for the simple reason that the Germans had been
+unable to lay hands on him. Armed guards had escorted the prisoners to
+the court, where soldiers with fixed bayonets stood between them.
+
+The court-martial was not likely to be a long and tedious affair, for
+the prisoners had been questioned and cross-examined _ad nauseam_ long
+before this final stage, and in most cases the accused had signed
+depositions admitting their guilt.
+
+The outstanding figure among the prisoners was Miss Cavell, the typical
+Red Cross nurse, whom sick soldiers love and reverence, whose
+incomparable devotion to duty places her in the forefront of the
+world's womanhood. She appeared in the uniform in which she had been
+arrested: the white cap covering the back of the head; the stiff collar
+around the neck; starched bow beneath the chin; and on her arm the Red
+Cross, the badge of her merciful mission.
+
+Even in a British court of justice perfectly innocent people are
+overawed by their surroundings, causing them to be self-conscious,
+nervous, and distracted at a time when cool collectedness should be the
+first line of their defence. But Miss Cavell knew that she was arraigned
+before unjust judges, who lacked the virtues of charity, sincerity,
+humanity, and probity, without which the exercise of judgement is a
+mockery and a sham.
+
+Her clear and expressive eyes looked out of a countenance that two
+months of close confinement had made deathly white. She was of the stuff
+of which martyrs are made. For what amounted to no more than a series of
+acts of womanly compassion she had become the sport of dire misfortune;
+but 'misfortune is never mournful to the soul that accepts it; for such
+do always see that every cloud is an angel's face.' Edith Cavell
+fearlessly looked about the court, viewing with evident curiosity the
+row of malevolent-looking officers in gorgeous uniforms, who occupied
+the judges' bench under the black Prussian eagle that is now the emblem
+of a nation's degradation. Occasionally her delicate features were
+illumined with a commiserating smile to encourage those who shared her
+own imminent peril.
+
+The case for the prosecution was that the accused were the principals in
+an organization that assisted British, French, and Belgian soldiers to
+escape from Belgium. It was alleged that fugitives were first smuggled
+into Brussels, where they were hidden either in a convent or in Miss
+Cavell's hospital. Later, as opportunity offered, they were disguised
+and conducted in tram-cars out of the city, and handed over to guides
+who led the way by devious routes to the Dutch frontier.
+
+When Miss Cavell was called upon to plead, she mastered her physical
+weakness, and serenely faced her accusers. In gentle accents she
+asserted that to the best of her belief she had but served her country,
+and, so far as that was wrong, she was ready to take the blame. Calmly
+she contemplated her end; cheerfully she was willing to be the
+scapegoat, in the hope that some at least of her friends might escape
+the dread punishment that she perceived would be her fate.
+
+She was interrogated in German, which an interpreter translated into
+French, with which tongue she was perfectly familiar. She spoke without
+trembling, and exhibited a clear and acute mind. Often she added some
+greater precision to her previous depositions. Her answers were always
+direct and unhesitating. When the Military Prosecutor inquired why she
+had helped soldiers to go to England, the reply came promptly: 'If I had
+not done so they would have been shot. I thought I was only doing my
+duty in saving their lives.'
+
+'That may be true so far as British soldiers were concerned,' agreed the
+interlocutor, 'but it did not apply to young Belgians. Why did you help
+them to cross the frontier, when they would have been perfectly free and
+safe in staying here?'
+
+Miss Cavell treated this question with the silent contempt it deserved.
+She knew only too well what freedom and safety had been accorded to many
+Belgians of military age who had been found in their own desecrated
+fatherland.
+
+She not only admitted that she had assisted refugees to escape, but she
+acknowledged that she had received letters of thanks from those who had
+reached England in safety. This was a vital admission. German evidence
+alone could have charged her with an 'attempt' to commit the crime, but
+the letters of thanks conclusively proved that she had 'committed' the
+offence.
+
+Among the other prisoners, M. Philippe Bancq was equally fearless.
+Without a quaver he admitted that he had assisted young Belgians to
+escape and rejoin their army. 'As a good Belgian patriot,' said he, 'I
+am ready to lay down my life for my country.'
+
+The Military Prosecutor demanded that the death penalty be passed upon
+Nurse Cavell and eight other prisoners. Whether the Englishwoman's
+compassionate conduct that was her offence and her heroic bearing under
+trial made an impression on her judges, one cannot tell. Their apparent
+disagreement may only have been a theatrical adjunct to the tragedy
+which Baron von Bissing had staged with consummate care. It may have
+been that they lacked the moral courage to pronounce sentence in her
+presence. In any case, judgement was postponed. In an ordinary trial
+this respite would have given play to hope, the miserable man's god,
+which keeps the soul from sinking in despair.
+
+But hope could neither flatter nor deceive Edith Cavell as she was led
+back under escort to her cell to wait--to wait for the assured
+condemnation that her eyes of courage must have perceived at the end of
+the cul-de-sac of German infamy.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+THE FIGHT FOR A LIFE
+
+
+The trial had occupied two days, and had ended on Friday, October 8. M.
+Kirschen had promised to keep M. de Leval informed how the matter was
+proceeding. He duly notified the date of the trial; but in thorough
+keeping with what had gone before, during the two days' progress of the
+inquiry he made no sign. He did not disclose that the Military
+Prosecutor had asked for the death penalty; he maintained silence even
+when the sentence was promulgated. Thus he was a party to cutting off
+the unhappy prisoner from the only friends who could bring powerful
+influence to bear upon the authorities for a revision of the sentence.
+Kirschen not only did not communicate with M. de Leval, but he
+disappeared entirely after the trial.
+
+It is placed on record by one present in court that Kirschen pleaded
+well for his client, but it is doubtful if it were more than a formal
+plea for mercy for one who was prejudged and her fate already sealed.
+That Kirschen is believed to be an Austrian by birth, although a
+naturalized Belgian, doubtless explains much that for a time had
+mystified the officials of the American Legation. It makes one's gorge
+rise to think that while the German conspirators pretended to allow the
+prisoner a friendly advocate, he was in reality a hideous travesty, a
+hypocritical cat's-paw of the Department of the Governor-General.
+
+After the perpetration of the crime M. Kirschen informed a sceptical
+world that he was not of Austrian origin, but was born at Jassy, in
+Roumania. He also denied that he promised to inform the American
+Legation about the sentence, and, in fact, did not know until it was
+announced publicly. It need only be commented that M. de Leval's letters
+to his chief are in emphatic contradiction, and there is no doubt whose
+word is worthy of credence.
+
+Failing to find M. Kirschen or learn any news of him, on Sunday night M.
+de Leval went to see Baron von der Lancken. The Baron was out, and Mr.
+Conrad, a subordinate, was unable to give any information.
+
+On Monday morning M. de Leval was informed by Conrad that the American
+Legation would be made acquainted with the judgement immediately it was
+pronounced, at the same time volunteering the assurance that it need not
+be expected for 'a day or two.'
+
+M. de Leval did not propose to rely upon any German assurances, and,
+further, was bent upon learning some of the details of the trial. In
+view of M. Kirschen's continued silence, he called at the house of the
+advocate at 12.30, but was informed that he would not be at home until
+late in the afternoon. He therefore proceeded to the house of another
+lawyer, who had been interested in one of Miss Cavell's fellow
+prisoners, but failed also to find that gentleman. However, he called
+upon M. de Leval a few hours later, and reported that he had heard that
+judgement would be passed on Tuesday morning. He also said that he had
+good grounds for believing that the sentence of the court would be
+severe for all the prisoners.
+
+Meanwhile repeated telephonic inquiries were made by the American
+Legation at the Politische Abteilung (Political Department), and upon
+each occasion it was stated that sentence had not been pronounced; and
+this was the reply as late as 6.20, together with the renewed promise to
+afford the required information as soon as it came to hand. And so the
+day dragged on.
+
+Yet the death sentence had been passed at five o'clock in the afternoon,
+and the execution of Miss Cavell was fixed for the same night! Not until
+8.30 p.m. did the American Legation learn from a reliable outside
+source that sentence had been passed, and the execution would probably
+take place at two o'clock in the morning. Thus the American Minister was
+hoodwinked up to almost the last moment. The same fiendish mind that had
+engineered the secret arrest and the trial _in camera_ had deliberately
+jockeyed the Legation out of anything like the time required for taking
+the requisite steps to secure the deferring of the execution, pending an
+appeal in the highest quarters for clemency.
+
+At this critical juncture Mr. Brand Whitlock was ill in bed; but,
+nevertheless, with Mr. Hugh Wilson, he threw himself into the task of
+attempting to save Miss Cavell's life, although the brief time at their
+disposal afforded but a slender chance of success. In a letter already
+prepared for dispatch to Baron von der Lancken, it was pointed out that
+the condemned Englishwoman had been treated with more severity than had
+been the result in other similar cases, although it was only her own
+commendable straightforwardness that enabled the charges against her to
+be proved. It was urged that she had spent her life in alleviating the
+sufferings of others, and at the beginning of the War she had bestowed
+her care as freely on German soldiers as on others. Her career as a
+servant of humanity should inspire the greatest sympathy and call for
+pardon. A letter in identical terms was addressed to Baron von Bissing.
+
+Apart from what may be termed these strictly official communications,
+the Minister directed a touching personal appeal to Baron von der
+Lancken that was calculated to move the heart of a Bashi-Bazouk.
+
+     'My dear Baron,
+
+     'I am too ill to present my request in person, but I appeal to the
+     generosity of your heart to support it and save this unfortunate
+     woman from death. Have pity on her!
+
+                                   'Yours sincerely,
+                                     'BRAND WHITLOCK.'
+
+That this poignant intercession failed in its purpose is indubitable
+proof, if further testimony were necessary, that the Prussian model of
+manliness is utterly devoid of chivalry, and that blood-lust takes the
+place of the ordinary dictates of humanity.
+
+Forthwith Mr. Gibson and M. de Leval sought out the Marquis de
+Villalobar, the Spanish Ambassador, and together the anxious trio
+proceeded to the house of Baron von der Lancken. Not only was the Baron
+not at home, but no member of his staff was in attendance, which
+suggests even to the most charitable chronicler that the visit had been
+anticipated. An urgent message was sent after the Baron, with the result
+that he returned home a little after ten o'clock, and was shortly
+followed by two members of his staff.
+
+When the circumstances necessitating the visit were explained to Baron
+von der Lancken, he professed to disbelieve that the death sentence had
+been passed, and asserted that in any case there would be no execution
+that night, and that the matter would lose nothing by waiting until the
+morning. But the neutral diplomatists were too hot upon the trail of
+German trickery and prevarication to permit of the desired
+procrastination; they were ambassadors in mercy rather than mere
+politics, and they firmly insisted upon the Baron instituting immediate
+inquiries. He retired to engage in telephonic communication with the
+presiding judge of the court-martial, doubtless not to seek for
+information, but to condole with each other upon the disclosure of their
+cunning scheme to these pestering neutrals, whose interference they had
+exercised their ingenuity to avoid.
+
+Shortly the Baron returned and admitted to his visitors that their
+information was correct, whereupon Mr. Gibson presented the letters
+appealing for delay in execution of the sentence, and at the same time
+he verbally emphasized every conceivable point that might assist to gain
+even the most temporary respite; and in these representations the
+Spanish Minister lent all the support at his command.
+
+Baron von der Lancken informed them that in these matters the supreme
+authority was the Military Governor; that the Governor-General had no
+authority to intervene; and that appeal could be carried only to the
+Emperor, and only in the event of the Military Governor exercising his
+discretionary power to accept an appeal for clemency.
+
+Upon the urgent appeal of the neutral diplomatists Baron von der Lancken
+agreed to speak to the Military Governor on the telephone. He was absent
+half an hour, and upon his return stated that he had been to confer
+personally with the Military Governor, who declared that the sentence
+upon Miss Cavell was the result of 'mature deliberation,' and that the
+circumstances in her case rendered 'the infliction of the death penalty
+imperative.'
+
+The Baron's attitude was that of absolute finality, and in signification
+of the end of the interview he asked Mr. Gibson to take back the note
+which he had presented to him. This apparently simple request was
+typical of the subtleties of Teutonic diplomacy, which cynically
+repudiates its own 'scraps of paper,' and consequently cannot be
+expected to hold those of others in very high esteem. Astute as Baron
+von der Lancken may have imagined himself to be, his idea is patent to
+an ordinarily unsophisticated mind, which not unnaturally, albeit
+ungenerously, infers that at some time in the future the Baron may
+desire to deny that he had received the written appeal of the American
+Minister, which would be borne out by its absence from the official
+archives. He is welcome to any satisfaction that the preparation for
+mendacity may afford an atrophic conscience and a mental attitude that
+is foreign to honourable diplomacy.
+
+For an hour longer the visitors argued and pleaded, only to be informed
+very positively that 'even the Emperor himself could not intervene'; but
+even then Mr. Gibson and the Marquis de Villalobar continued to make
+fresh appeals for delay. Finally the Spanish Minister drew Baron von der
+Lancken aside in order to express some forcible opinions that he
+hesitated to say in the presence of the Baron's subordinates and M. de
+Leval, a Belgian subject; and in the meantime Mr. Gibson and M. de Leval
+argued desperately with the younger officers--but all in vain.
+
+Edith Cavell was doomed to death by that same tyranny that had
+consummated the horrors of Louvain, that had heaped up atrocity upon
+atrocity to appal all Christendom. As the bells of the city chimed the
+midnight hour the victims' friends returned in despair to the American
+Legation.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+THE BLOOD OF THE MARTYR
+
+
+At eleven o'clock that same night, while Mr. Gibson and the Marquis de
+Villalobar were expostulating with Baron von der Lancken, the Rev. H. S.
+T. Gahan, the British Chaplain in Brussels, entered the cell in which
+Nurse Cavell had spent the last ten weeks of her life.
+
+Even in that supreme hour when she was being hurried to the grave by her
+implacable foes, she knew no fear. She was calm and resigned. Upon her
+gentle lips was no execration of her enemies, but only sentiments that
+make us infinitely proud of her, that shall be repeated by generations
+yet unborn, that shall endure in our national affection and reverence as
+long as British tongues have speech and words have meaning.
+
+In his report to the American Legation Mr. Gahan said that Nurse
+Cavell's first words were concerned with a matter concerning herself
+personally, 'but the solemn asseveration which accompanied them was made
+expressly in the light of God and eternity.' In expressing the wish for
+all her friends to know that she willingly gave her life to her country,
+she said, 'I have no fear nor shrinking; I have seen death so often that
+it is not strange or fearful to me.' She further said, 'I thank God for
+this ten weeks' quiet before the end. Life has always been hurried and
+full of difficulty. This time of rest has been a great mercy. They have
+all been very kind to me here. But this I would say, standing as I do in
+view of God and eternity, I realize that patriotism is not enough. I
+must have no hatred or bitterness towards any one.'
+
+When the chaplain administered the Holy Communion, she received the
+gospel message of consolation with all her heart; and when he repeated
+the words of the hymn 'Abide with me,' Miss Cavell softly joined in the
+last verse:
+
+    Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes;
+    Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies;
+    Heaven's morning breaks, and earth's vain shadows flee;
+    In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.
+
+Afterwards the chaplain and Miss Cavell quietly conversed until the
+jailer intimated that the interview must end. She then gave him final
+parting messages for relatives and friends. 'She spoke of her soul's
+need at the moment, and she received the assurance of God's word as only
+the Christian can do'; and when he bade her 'good-bye' she smiled and
+said, 'We shall meet again.'
+
+Early in the morning Miss Cavell was led out to execution. As there is
+no official account of her last moments, we at first had to rely chiefly
+upon the report of the Amsterdam _Telegraaf_, a thoroughly reliable and
+influential journal; but later, additional details were available from
+various accredited sources. The _Telegraaf_ records that the soldiers of
+the shooting party were greatly impressed by the courage and fortitude
+of the nurse, and much distressed at their enforced participation in a
+dastardly crime. Each individual soldier purposely aimed high so that he
+might not have the murder on his conscience. The whole firing party thus
+being impelled by the same humane motive, the volley left the victim
+standing unharmed.
+
+Only in that dread moment did her physical strength refuse to respond
+further to her sublimely heroic spirit. She swooned and fell; and the
+officer in charge of the soldiers stepped forward and shot her through
+the head, close to the ear, as she lay mercifully unconscious of her
+surroundings.
+
+Whether it be true or not that the soldiers acted as described, one
+would like to believe it, if only because it would afford some
+satisfaction to think that the German rank and file can be stirred by
+humane impulses to which their superiors are strangers. The rough
+soldiers would appear as veritable angels compared to Baron von Bissing
+and von der Lancken, his companion in crime. These ruffians consigned
+themselves by their conduct to everlasting loathing and contempt; to
+satisfy their rabid hate of England they proved themselves worthy peers
+of Judge Jeffreys, Robespierre, Nana Sahib, and other unnatural
+monsters.
+
+Six weeks after the grim tragedy three of Miss Cavell's friends returned
+to England from Belgium, and several of their statements correct
+previous errors. One of these ladies saw Miss Cavell in prison a few
+days before the end, but by that time the secrecy and isolation from all
+advice had accomplished all that her jailers desired. The visitor says
+that during the interview Miss Cavell was quite herself, wonderfully
+calm, and preferred to talk on ordinary topics. Originally it was stated
+that the execution took place at 2 a.m. in the prison of St. Gilles, but
+Miss Wilkins, who took over the management of the hospital after Miss
+Cavell's arrest, was at the prison at five o'clock on the morning of the
+12th. She was just in time to see her friend being conducted to the
+motor-car in which she was to be driven to the Tir National, two miles
+out of Brussels, which was the selected place of execution. She walked
+firmly, and, from the expression of her face, she was serene and
+undisturbed.
+
+The German military chaplain was with her at the end, and afterwards
+gave her poor body Christian burial. He told Mr. Gahan that 'she was
+brave and bright to the last. She professed her Christian faith, and
+that she was glad to die for her country.' 'She died like a heroine.'
+
+But the German chaplain did not inform Mr. Gahan that, accustomed as he
+was to painful death scenes, the brutal end of the gentle victim so
+horrified him that he himself sank to the ground in a dead faint--a
+weakness that stands to the credit of his heart and calling.
+
+The Rev. H. S. T. Gahan was sent to Brussels by the Colonial and
+Continental Church Society only a few months before the outbreak of the
+War. He was imprisoned for a few days in November, 1914, but was
+released when the Americans represented that they required a clergyman.
+All other British men were deported, but many British women and children
+remain in Brussels. Many of those who have contrived to escape from the
+stricken capital testify to the help and kindness and sympathy of the
+British chaplain.
+
+It has been asserted that by her own request Miss Cavell was permitted
+to face her executioners with unbandaged eyes and unbound hands. But
+more than that, according to later information, the Germans, with one of
+their acute refinements of cruelty, allowed her to witness the execution
+of M. Bancq, and it was this sight, more than fear of her own end, that
+caused her to collapse.
+
+The only announcement of Miss Cavell's death received by her friends and
+pupils was through a poster displayed on the walls of Brussels baldly
+announcing that the execution had taken place; and letters which were
+addressed to them the day before she died were not delivered until a
+month afterwards.
+
+The body of the martyr was buried by her enemies near the prison of St.
+Gilles. Mr. Whitlock, on behalf of the First President of the Brussels
+Court of Appeals and President of the Belgian School of Certificated
+Nurses, asked Baron von der Lancken for the body of Miss Cavell, its
+directress. It was undertaken, in the removal of the body and its burial
+in the Brussels district, to conform to all the regulations of the
+German authorities. Mr. Whitlock remarked that he felt sure that His
+Excellency would make no objection to the request, and that the
+institution to which Miss Cavell had generously devoted a part of her
+life would be permitted to perform a pious duty. Baron von der Lancken
+did not send a written reply, but called upon Mr. Gibson in person. He
+stated that under the regulations governing such cases it was
+impossible to exhume the body without written permission from the
+Minister of War in Berlin. Thus the Germans took the opportunity of
+crowning their foul deed with the final dishonour of a refusal of even
+such a last pitiful request.
+
+Really it is immaterial where Edith Cavell's body may be laid to rest,
+although sentiment may demand its ultimate recovery. Her memory will
+lack nothing. It is enshrined in glowing effulgence in the hearts of
+Britons and our Allies for all time.
+
+Although our story is the record of Edith Cavell, we can spare a thought
+for her heroic companions. M. Philippe Bancq declared his willingness to
+die for his country, and the Germans took him at his word. Princess
+Marie de Croy was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment; but the Comtesse
+de Belleville and Mademoiselle Thulier were condemned to death. Upon
+strong representations made by the King of Spain and the Pope, however,
+the German Emperor hastened to pardon these two ladies, because he was
+aware of the universal horror caused by the deliberate political murder
+of Miss Cavell. Von Bissing, too, evidently was warned by the Kaiser to
+moderate his bloodthirstiness, as evidenced by a promise of their lives
+to all British and French soldiers still hidden in Belgium if they
+surrendered without delay. Verily, it was speedily proved that Nurse
+Cavell had died that others might live--and it is not always the case
+that even the greatest sacrifices bear so speedy a fruit.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+IN MEMORIAM
+
+
+It is almost impossible to express how deeply the heart of the nation
+was stirred by the crowning deed of infamy signalized in the tyrannous
+execution of Edith Cavell; and all classes, from the highest to the
+lowest, were desirous of testifying their admiration of one whose
+devotion to duty and consecrated death will ever be an inspiration to
+our race.
+
+The following message was dispatched from the King and Queen to Mrs.
+Cavell, the stricken mother of the dead heroine:
+
+                                        'BUCKINGHAM PALACE,
+                                            '_October 23, 1915_.
+
+     'Dear Madam,--By command of the King and Queen I write to assure
+     you that the hearts of their Majesties go out to you in your
+     bitter sorrow, and to express their horror at the appalling deed
+     which has robbed you of your child. Men and women throughout the
+     civilized world, while sympathizing with you, are moved with
+     admiration and awe at her faith and courage in death.
+
+     'Believe me, dear Madam, yours very truly,
+
+                                             'STAMFORDHAM.'
+
+Queen Alexandra's letter, through the medium of the Rector of
+Sandringham, ran as follows:
+
+     'I am commanded by Her Majesty Queen Alexandra to write and say how
+     deeply Her Majesty feels for you in the sad and tragic death of
+     your daughter. Her Majesty views the unheard-of act with the utmost
+     abhorrence; no words of mine are in any way adequate to express the
+     deep feelings of Her Majesty as she spoke to me of Miss Cavell's
+     death. Her Majesty's first thought was of you, and I was to tell
+     you how deeply, very deeply, Her Majesty sympathizes with you.
+     "Her poor, poor mother. I go on thinking of her," were Her
+     Majesty's words. The women of England are bearing the greatest
+     burden of this terrible War, but by all the name of Miss Cavell
+     will be held in the highest honour and respect. We shall always
+     remember that she never once failed England in her hour of need.
+     "May God bless and comfort you!" is the prayer of Her Majesty.'
+
+Naturally the tragic death of their heroic sister went like a
+trumpet-blast through the ranks of the nursing profession, and the
+following letter of sympathy addressed to Mrs. Cavell from the President
+and Council of the Royal British Nurses' Association was signed by
+Princess Christian herself:
+
+     'We, the President and Council of the Royal British Nurses'
+     Association, desire to express the warm and heartfelt sympathy of
+     the whole Association with you in the bereavement which has fallen
+     on you in such tragic circumstances. Your daughter's heroic death
+     is one which will always remain a lasting memorial to devotion,
+     courage, and self-sacrifice, and her name will ever be remembered
+     among those heroes who have laid down their lives for their
+     country.'
+
+Of the condolences from abroad a few examples must suffice. M. Cambon,
+the French Ambassador in London, received from the Committee of Foreign
+Affairs of the Chamber of Deputies the following telegram for
+transmission to the House of Commons:
+
+     'The Chairman and Members of the Committee of Foreign Affairs of
+     the Chamber of Deputies, deeply moved by the tragic fate of Miss
+     Cavell, desire to offer to the members of the House of Commons the
+     expression of the respect and admiration which they feel for the
+     noble heroine of British patriotism, and beg the House of Commons
+     to accept, on behalf of themselves and of their colleagues, their
+     message of grief and indignation.'
+
+Acting under the instructions of his Government, the Belgian Minister
+telegraphed to Mrs. Cavell:
+
+     'The Belgian Government shares with emotion and respect in your
+     grief. Our entire population to-day associates in a universal
+     sentiment of admiration and gratitude the name of Miss Cavell with
+     that of the many Belgian women who have already fallen martyrs to
+     German barbarism, and from whose innocent blood will arise new
+     heroism for the defence of civilization.'
+
+
+A GREAT MEMORIAL SERVICE.
+
+London in particular, and the nation in general, laid its wreath of
+prayer around the bier of Edith Cavell in a great memorial service held
+in St. Paul's Cathedral on October 29, 1915. It was a fitting and
+touching token of affection and admiration of one of our greatest
+national heroines, solemnly performed in one of the most sacred of our
+national shrines.
+
+The morning found London enshrouded in blue-grey mist; but at eleven
+o'clock, the time of service, the weather-worn old sanctuary commenced
+to gleam in pale sunshine, as if it were a halo from the glorious dead
+to lighten the gloom of the sorrowing multitude.
+
+St. Paul's Cathedral has witnessed many moving ceremonies, sad and
+joyful, pathetic and glorious, but never in its history had it witnessed
+a spectacle quite like the present occasion, which had its origin in a
+brutal act of tyranny that had given rise to a cry of horror to agitate
+the civilized world.
+
+Under Wren's great dome were gathered representatives of every
+department of the national life. Mr. E. W. Wallington attended on behalf
+of the King and Queen. It had been expected that Queen Alexandra would
+be similarly represented, but Her Majesty preferred to attend in person
+in strictest privacy, typical of that gracious tact that has made her
+universally beloved, and one more proof of her special friendship for
+nurses.
+
+The family of the martyred nurse was represented by two married sisters,
+Miss Scott Cavell, matron of the Hull and East Riding Convalescent Home,
+and other relatives. The aged mother was not present; she was too
+weighed down by weight of years and sorrow to face a public ordeal whose
+pathos would have been too poignant to bear. In imagination could be
+conjured up a white-haired stately dame in her quiet Norwich home,
+engaging in a simultaneous service all her own in the silence of her
+saddened heart.
+
+Among the more distinguished members of the congregation were the Prime
+Minister and not a few members of the Cabinet; members of both Houses of
+Parliament; Sir A. Keogh (representing Lord Kitchener); Lord Charles
+Beresford, a popular representative of the Navy; the Diplomatic Corps;
+the High Commissioners of Canada and Australia; the Deputy Lord Mayor
+and Sheriffs in state; and notable representatives of the arts,
+sciences, commerce, &c. For the rest there was a vast concourse, all
+bent upon the one single purpose of taking advantage of the grave and
+beautiful Anglican ritual to place on record, without bitterness, hate,
+or venom, their deep sense of the foul crime that had sent Edith Cavell
+to her death.
+
+But the outstanding feature of the multitude was the nurses. Six hundred
+of them were in reserved seats, but there must have been at least two
+thousand in the building. First and foremost were various members of
+Miss Cavell's training school in Belgium; and, of course, the 'London,'
+in their dark rifle green, had a prominent place in the great company of
+nurses of all grades, ambassadors and delegates of their noble
+profession. Many of them were simply in caps and aprons with a cloak
+around their shoulders, suggesting that they had come straight from
+their duties in the city's palaces of pain to engage in a service that
+was a fresh consecration of their merciful calling.
+
+Except for the gorgeous habiliments of the civic officials, Queen
+Alexandra's corps of nurses provided the only note of colour in the
+touch of red at the capes; for even the band of the First Life Guards
+was dressed in sober khaki instead of their usually resplendent
+uniforms.
+
+Wounded soldiers, often in groups, were pathetically noticeable among
+the congregation, poor fellows who could testify above all others to the
+mercy and healing brought to the sick and the maimed by 'a noble type of
+good heroic womanhood.' Of the whole immense gathering the majority were
+women. A large proportion of them were in black, the significant badge
+of grief for the loss of their own particular dear ones, the brave
+fellows who have laid down their lives on the battle-fields, or on the
+ocean for whose mistress-ship they died.
+
+As the Cathedral clock boomed out the hour the drums rolled in prelude
+to Chopin's 'Funeral March,' which struck the first note of emotion in
+the massed assembly and brought it to its feet. Slowly the choir, headed
+by the symbol of our and Edith Cavell's faith, moved to their places,
+preceding the clergy, chief of whom were the Bishop of London and Dr.
+Bury, the Bishop of Central Europe.
+
+The service proper commenced with the hymn 'Abide with me,' in which ten
+thousand voices joined, and never was it sung with more feeling and
+reverence. The last verse in particular must have called to every mind
+that inexpressibly sad scene in St. Gilles' Prison. The words brought
+solace and strength to Nurse Cavell, and some of her quiet faith, her
+touching fortitude, seemed to be communicated to the congregation.
+
+Following the special Psalms and the Lesson from the Burial Service,
+band and organ together played the Dead March in _Saul_; and as the
+notes pulsed and throbbed, pealed out with mighty rush of sound, or
+decreased to little more than the volume of human breath, the terror of
+death became secondary to the triumph of the spirit.
+
+With singularly moving effect the choir commenced to sing the Liturgy of
+St. Chrysostom, the beautiful prayer that contrasted so strongly with
+the crashing harmonies that had scarcely ceased to reverberate far up in
+the empty dome.
+
+Prayers from the Burial Service were followed by a special petition
+that, 'laying aside our divisions, we may be united in heart and mind to
+bear the burdens which the War has laid upon us....' The congregation
+sang 'Through the night of doubt and sorrow,' with its happy marching
+swing; the Bishop of London pronounced the Benediction; then came the
+resonant notes of the National Anthem; and the organ played a
+recessional as the choir and clergy retired. A moment later two thousand
+nurses fell to their knees, and 'if ever a soul went well charioted to
+its Maker it was the soul of Edith Cavell.'
+
+The service was over, and those who had been privileged to participate
+in a soul-searching ceremony streamed out into the hum of the mightiest
+camp of men the world has ever known. It was like coming from the Holy
+of Holies, with an everlasting memory to kindle the love and enthusiasm
+of all who worship at the shrine of duty.
+
+And the wonder of it all, it was a great national tribute to one who a
+fortnight earlier was unknown outside her own family and immediate
+circle of friends. She had 'lived unknown till persecution dragged her
+into fame and chased her up to heaven,' as a cry of horror and
+execration, mingled with agonized pity for her harrowing fate, flashed
+her name from peak to peak and continent to continent.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The columns of the British press were flooded with letters denouncing
+the crime and acknowledging the death of the martyr as an irresistibly
+compelling call to duty; and innumerable suggestions were made for
+perpetuating in tangible form the memory of a daughter of England who
+had taught us how to die.
+
+One notable scheme for a memorial was speedily announced in connexion
+with the London Hospital, which happened to be establishing a new
+nursing home, which was to bear the name of Queen Alexandra. With true
+nobility of heart Queen Alexandra promptly requested that her name
+should give way to that of Edith Cavell, and public subscriptions
+quickly assured an enlargement of the original scheme.
+
+The _Daily Telegraph_ initiated a subscription fund to provide a statue
+in stone and bronze by Sir George Frampton, and the eminent sculptor
+intimated that his work would be a labour of love and a voluntary gift.
+The Westminster City Council offered a site opposite the National
+Portrait Gallery; and thus the statue will face Trafalgar Square,
+already rich in national memories. Edith Cavell's death first became
+known in England on Trafalgar Day. The base of the Nelson Monument was
+hidden under the customary floral tributes to our greatest naval hero,
+and amid them was placed a wreath of laurels, a symbol of the martyrdom
+of the heroic nurse, of which the public would learn through the press
+the following day. It will be peculiarly fitting for the statue to Edith
+Cavell, whose last words were that she was glad to die for her country,
+to be within sight of the column where stands the one-armed Nelson,
+whose last immortal signal, 'England expects every man to do his duty,'
+has ever been an inspiration not only to the Fleet, but to every true
+lover of his country.
+
+Other ideas for the perpetuation of the name of Nurse Cavell included
+the raising of a Cavell Regiment, that should be a living monument of
+brave men, who would be heartened and vivified by the noble life and
+death of their devoted countrywoman. But the true spirit of Britons
+negatived the necessity for a particular regiment. The next day after
+the announcement of the death of Miss Cavell every eligible man in her
+native village joined the Forces, and the recruits, all told, must have
+numbered many thousands.
+
+Probably it would afford general satisfaction if another proposal bore
+fruit, namely, the institution of a new Order, equivalent to the
+Victoria Cross, for heroism by women of our race and Empire; and the
+heroism of our women in the present War emphasizes the justice and
+wisdom of some such acknowledgement.
+
+Up and down the country there were soon memorial schemes, generally in
+connexion with local hospitals or the British Red Cross Society. One of
+the first of this kind was the endowment of a bed in King Edward VII's
+Hospital, Cardiff, by Sir W. J. Thomas. There speedily followed the
+proposed institution of other beds to be named after Miss Cavell: the
+City of Dublin Hospital asked for L500 to endow a bed; the 'Ediths' of
+Yorkshire commenced to collect to perpetuate her memory in the north;
+and a fund of L1,000 was started for a free bed for nurses at the Mount
+Vernon Hospital for Consumption.
+
+Miss Scott Cavell made it known that her sister had hoped some time in
+the future to establish a home for nurses only, those either
+convalescent or tired, or who required a temporary home on holiday from
+abroad, or a temporary place of rest only. A subscription list was at
+once opened to give effect to a plan that had been so near Nurse
+Cavell's heart.
+
+A similar idea, but on a larger scale, was favoured by Sir John Howard,
+well known in Brighton as the giver of the John Howard Convalescent Home
+for Ladies in Reduced Circumstances. He announced that in memory of Miss
+Cavell he would build twenty-four cottage homes for incapacitated
+nurses, and endow each with the sum of ten shillings a week. This
+munificent memorial will entail the expenditure of about L30,000.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+BRITISH OFFICIAL REPROBATION
+
+
+The language of diplomacy is of a restrained and judicial character,
+even when dealing with questions that arouse in the lay mind a whole
+storm of feeling. But the letter of Sir Edward Grey of October 20, 1915,
+addressed to Mr. Page, the United States Ambassador in London, with
+studied calmness and marked dignity indicts the German authorities of an
+unwarrantable haste in carrying out the sentence that amounts to
+political murder. The Foreign Secretary's comments were as follows:
+
+     'Sir E. Grey is confident that the news of the execution of this
+     noble Englishwoman will be received with horror and disgust, not
+     only in the United States, but throughout the civilized world. Miss
+     Cavell was not even charged with espionage, and the fact that she
+     had nursed numbers of wounded German soldiers might have been
+     regarded as a complete reason in itself for treating her with
+     leniency.
+
+     'The attitude of the German authorities is, if possible, rendered
+     worse by the discreditable efforts successfully made by the
+     officials of the German civil administration at Brussels to conceal
+     the fact that sentence had been passed, and would be carried out
+     immediately. These efforts were no doubt prompted by the
+     determination to carry out the sentence before an appeal from the
+     finding of the court-martial could be made to a higher authority,
+     and show in the clearest manner that the German authorities
+     concerned were well aware that the carrying out of the sentence was
+     not warranted by any consideration.
+
+     'Further comment on their proceedings would be superfluous.
+
+     'In conclusion, Sir E. Grey would request Mr. Page to express to
+     Mr. Whitlock and the staff of the United States Legation at
+     Brussels the grateful thanks of His Majesty's Government for their
+     untiring efforts on Miss Cavell's behalf. He is fully satisfied
+     that no stone was left unturned to secure for Miss Cavell a fair
+     trial, and, when sentence had been pronounced, a mitigation
+     thereof.
+
+     'Sir E. Grey realizes that Mr. Whitlock was placed in a very
+     embarrassing position by the failure of the German authorities to
+     inform him that the sentence had been passed, and would be carried
+     out at once. In order, therefore, to forestall any unjust criticism
+     which might be made in this country, he is publishing Mr.
+     Whitlock's dispatch to Mr. Page without delay.'
+
+Sir Edward Grey also wrote to the Spanish Ambassador in London
+acknowledging the good services of the Spanish Minister at Brussels, and
+concluding thus:
+
+     'His Majesty's Government much appreciates the efforts made by the
+     Marquis de Villalobar on this occasion, and the sentiments of
+     humanity and chivalry which animated him, and they would be
+     grateful if your Excellency would be good enough to so inform the
+     Spanish Government.'
+
+In the House of Lords the Earl of Desart asked the Government if they
+could give any information with regard to the execution of Miss Edith
+Cavell by the German authorities in Belgium. Her offence, he said, of
+assisting her own countrymen and the countrymen of our Allies to escape
+was one which a belligerent was entitled to protect itself against, and
+a sentence of execution might even be passed, but such sentence ought
+never to have been carried out by any country. It was rumoured that
+other persons against whom similar charges had been made were lying in
+peril of their lives, and it might be possible through the action of
+neutral countries to prevent a recurrence of one of the greatest
+tragedies of the War.
+
+The Marquis of Lansdowne replied:
+
+     'I am not surprised, and I am sure no member of the House can be
+     surprised, that the noble Earl should have called attention to this
+     most deplorable incident. We have been during the last few months
+     continually shocked by occurrences each more terrible and moving
+     than its predecessor; but I doubt whether any incident has moved
+     public opinion in this country more than the manner in which this
+     poor lady was, I suppose I may say, executed in cold blood.
+
+     'It is no doubt the case that she may by her conduct have rendered
+     herself liable to punishment, perhaps to severe punishment, for
+     acts that could be taken to be a violation of the kind of law which
+     prevails when war is going on. But I have no hesitation in saying
+     that she might at any rate have expected that measure of mercy
+     which, I believe, in no civilized country would have been refused
+     to one who was not only a woman, but a very brave and devoted
+     woman, and one who had given all her efforts and energies to the
+     mitigation of the sufferings of others.
+
+     'I am able to tell my noble friend that a full report relating to
+     the circumstances under which Miss Cavell was executed was
+     forwarded to the Foreign Office by the United States Ambassador. We
+     learn from this report that the representatives of the United
+     States and Spain at Brussels up to the very last moment neglected
+     no opportunity or effort in order to obtain a commutation of the
+     death sentence passed on Miss Cavell, or even to obtain at least a
+     period of suspense before that sentence was carried into effect.
+     These efforts failed.
+
+     'With regard to the second part of my noble friend's question, I am
+     able to tell him that two French ladies have been condemned to
+     death on a charge of sheltering British and French fugitive
+     soldiers. These ladies were to have been executed on Monday last;
+     but I am glad to be able to add that, as the result of strong
+     representations made by His Majesty the King of Spain and by the
+     Pope, the execution of these sentences has been postponed pending
+     consideration by the German Emperor of the reports on both cases.
+     I will only add that I am convinced there is not a man or woman in
+     this country who will not join with the noble Earl in the protest
+     he has made against this terrible occurrence.'
+
+In the House of Commons Mr. Asquith, the Prime Minister, said:
+
+     'If there be moments such as come to all of us when we are tempted
+     to be fainthearted, let us ask ourselves what year in our history
+     has done more to justify our faith in the manhood and the womanhood
+     of our people? It has brought us, as we cannot at this moment
+     forget, the imperishable story of the last hours of Edith Cavell,
+     facing a terrible ordeal worse than that of the battle-field. She
+     has taught the bravest man amongst us the supreme lesson of
+     courage. Yes, and in this United Kingdom and throughout the
+     Dominions of the Crown there are thousands of such women. A year
+     ago we did not know it. We have great traditions, but a nation
+     cannot exist by traditions alone. Thank God, we have living
+     examples of all the qualities which have built up and sustained our
+     Empire. Let us be worthy of them, and endure to the end.'
+
+The Secretary for Foreign Affairs was asked whether, according to
+Article 10 of the Hague Convention of 1907 and the guarantee of the
+neutrality of Belgium, to which Prussia was a party, the late Miss
+Cavell was, according to such law as could be applied to her case,
+guilty of any military offence.
+
+Sir E. Grey: 'It seems unnecessary to go into technical legal points to
+condemn what has been done in this case. The reprobation of it, which I
+believe is widespread in the world, rests upon higher considerations,
+which arouse deeper feelings, than mere illegality.'
+
+In another question the Secretary for Foreign Affairs was asked whether
+he had taken, or intended to take, any steps to convey to the Military
+Governor of Brussels that, when opportunity offered, he would be held
+personally responsible by His Majesty's Government for the
+quasi-judicial assassination of Miss Cavell.
+
+Lord Robert Cecil: 'On May 5 last the Prime Minister assured the House
+that due reparation would be exacted from all persons, whatever their
+position, who can be shown to have maltreated our prisoners in Germany.
+That pledge still holds good, and applies with twofold force in the case
+of the savage murder under legal forms of a noble woman. I do not think
+that it would serve any good purpose to attempt to convey this resolve
+to any particular German official, who, for aught we know at present,
+may not be the chief offender.'
+
+The statement of the Prime Minister to which the above reference was
+made was as follows:
+
+     'The Government were at least as anxious as anybody else that when
+     the proper time came due reparation should be exacted from all
+     persons, whatever their position or their antecedents, who could be
+     shown to have violated the most elementary principles, and perhaps
+     the most fundamental, of all the rules and usages of civilized
+     warfare.'
+
+If there be any value in the British Government's expressed
+determination, then assuredly von Bissing and von der Lancken will be
+indicted for the offence that stinks in the nostrils of the whole
+world.
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+GERMANY'S CYNICAL DEFENCE
+
+
+Germany speedily found it wise to attempt to justify the execution of
+Miss Cavell in order to moderate the storm of indignation that had been
+aroused in neutral countries. To that end Dr. Zimmermann,
+Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, set forth the German defence in an
+interview granted to a United States correspondent in Berlin.
+
+     'It was a pity,' said Dr. Zimmermann, 'that Miss Cavell had to be
+     executed, but it was necessary. She was judged justly. We hope it
+     will not be necessary to have any more executions.
+
+     'I see from the English and American press that the shooting of an
+     Englishwoman and the condemnation of several other women in
+     Brussels for treason has caused a sensation, and capital against us
+     is being made out of the fact. It is undoubtedly a terrible thing
+     that the woman has been executed; but consider what would happen to
+     a State, particularly in war, if it left crimes aimed at the safety
+     of its armies to go unpunished because committed by women. No
+     criminal code in the world--least of all the laws of war--makes
+     such a distinction; and the feminine sex has but one preference,
+     according to legal usages, namely, that women in a delicate
+     condition may not be executed. Otherwise men and women are equal
+     before the law, and only the degree of guilt makes a difference in
+     the sentence for the crime and its consequences.
+
+     'I have before me the court's verdict in the Cavell case, and can
+     assure you that it was gone into with the utmost thoroughness, and
+     was investigated and cleared up to the smallest details. The
+     result was so convincing, and the circumstances were so clear, that
+     no war court in the world could have given any other verdict, for
+     it was not concerned with a single emotional deed of one person,
+     but a well-thought-out plot, with many far-reaching ramifications,
+     which for nine months succeeded in doing valuable service to our
+     enemies and great detriment to our armies. Countless Belgian,
+     French, and English soldiers are again fighting in the ranks of the
+     Allies who owe their escape to the band now found guilty, whose
+     head was the Cavell woman. Only the utmost sternness could do away
+     with such activities under the very nose of our authorities, and a
+     Government which in such case does not resort to the sternest
+     measures sins against its most elementary duties toward the safety
+     of its own army.
+
+     'All those convicted were thoroughly aware of the nature of their
+     acts. The court particularly weighed this point with care, letting
+     off several of the accused because they were in doubt as to
+     whether they knew that their actions were punishable. Those
+     condemned knew what they were doing, for numerous public
+     proclamations had pointed out the fact that aiding enemies' armies
+     was punishable with death.
+
+     'I know that the motives of the condemned were not base; that they
+     acted from patriotism; but in war one must be prepared to seal
+     one's patriotism with blood, whether one faces the enemy in battle,
+     or otherwise in the interest of one's cause does deeds which justly
+     bring after them the death penalty. Among our Russian prisoners are
+     several young girls who fought against us in soldiers' uniforms.
+     Had one of these girls fallen, no one would have accused us of
+     barbarity against women. Why now, when another woman has met the
+     death to which she knowingly exposed herself, as did her comrades
+     in battle?
+
+     'There are moments in the life of nations where consideration for
+     the existence of the individual is a crime against all. Such a
+     moment was here. It was necessary once for all to put an end to the
+     activity of our enemies, regardless of their motives; therefore the
+     death penalty was executed so as to frighten off all those who,
+     counting on preferential treatment for their sex, take part in
+     undertakings punishable by death.
+
+     'It was proved after a long trial of the sentenced persons that
+     they for some months past had been engaged in assisting Belgians of
+     military age to enlist in hostile armies, and in enabling French
+     and English deserters to escape the country. They had many helpers,
+     and had organized branches.
+
+     'The Governor-General had repeatedly issued warnings against such
+     activity, pointing out that severe punishment for such action was
+     unavoidable.
+
+     'The guilty persons were sentenced in a public sitting according to
+     the law based on the provisions of the imperial penal code and the
+     military penal code for war treason and espionage. No special law
+     exists for Belgium, and no so-called "usage of war" influenced the
+     verdict of the court.'
+
+Dr. Zimmermann maintained that the execution was carried out in
+accordance with the established regulations, death occurring immediately
+after the first volley, as attested by the physician who was present.
+
+The greater part of Dr. Zimmermann's futile reasoning is not worth
+discussion in detail. The one outstanding fact is the common belief that
+no military authorities in Europe, other than German, would have
+executed Miss Cavell for an offence actuated by purest motives of
+patriotism, and in which there was not the faintest suspicion of
+espionage. It may be remarked, too, that in America Judge Lynch never
+executed a woman. The attempt to draw a parallel case between Nurse
+Cavell and Russian women who have fought as soldiers is puerile in the
+extreme. In the case of the Russian, she is dressed in male uniform, and
+the German who shoots her in action does so in ignorance of her sex;
+Miss Cavell was a Red Cross nurse whose services to German wounded
+alone should have struck a spark of compassion.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Later, an inspired telegram was issued from Berlin to counteract the
+'incorrect and exaggerated' discussions in the foreign press. It was
+stated that Miss Cavell was sentenced in a public sitting, although it
+is an incontrovertible fact that the American Legation could not get
+permission to be represented. It is laid to Miss Cavell's charge that
+she 'nursed only rich people for heavy fees.' Even if it were true, it
+would not palliate the German offence of hurried and clandestine murder;
+but we know, and the Germans know, that her whole life was spent in
+doing good for others. Finally is repeated the old statement that
+cruelties were committed by Lord Kitchener during the Boer War on women
+and children. This oft-repeated libel needs no refutation of ours,
+because it was demolished years ago by the German official history of
+the Boer War.
+
+The next step in German impudence was an attempt to make believe that
+in the documents exchanged between the American Legation in Brussels and
+the German authorities as published by the British Government, some
+circumstances of the utmost importance are inaccurately reported by the
+Belgian lawyer who acts as legal adviser to the Legation. To this Sir
+Edward Grey informed the press that the papers relating to the case of
+Miss Cavell were published exactly as they were received from the
+American Embassy and with the American Embassy's consent.
+
+On November 20, however, nearly a month later, the British Foreign
+Office did make public one correction:
+
+     'The letter addressed by the United States Minister at Brussels to
+     the Ambassador in London, under date October 14, to the effect that
+     the German prosecutor had asked for a sentence of death against
+     Miss Edith Cavell _and eight other persons implicated by her
+     testimony_ was due to erroneous information furnished to the
+     United States Legation, and, so far as it has been possible to
+     discover, no other person has been directly implicated by any
+     testimony on the part of Miss Cavell.'
+
+The acknowledgement of this mistake, however, could have afforded the
+Germans but little satisfaction, because its only effect was the removal
+of a slur on the loyalty of Miss Cavell to her friends.
+
+In the clumsy attempt to justify their savagery the Germans have done
+nothing to prevent judgement going by default in the heart of all
+civilized nations. They omit all reference to their inhuman haste and
+calculated trickery, and their venomous refusal to allow exhumation and
+proper burial. No laws of war permit such outrages, no military
+necessities can excuse and no pedantic partisan can vindicate them.
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+JUSTICE AND SAVAGERY CONTRASTED
+
+
+Sir John Simon, the late Home Secretary, in an interview with a United
+States correspondent in London, averred that in the record of Britain's
+treatment of persons accused of military offences the case of Miss
+Cavell had and could have no parallel. To no woman, even in cases of
+clearly proved espionage, had Britain meted out a sentence of death; and
+in no case is a woman, whatever her nationality, tried in any but a
+civil court.
+
+It may be urged that in an occupied territory such as Belgium the
+administration of the law may call for slight difference; but the Cavell
+case was not a sudden or unexpected discovery that called for a
+drumhead court-martial on a battle-field. The 'crime' was committed in
+Brussels, where the invaders claim to have restored orderly government
+under their own civil governor.
+
+     'In England the accused is brought before a tribunal which holds a
+     preliminary inquiry taking the summary evidence. He is always
+     assisted by a lawyer, and a complete record of the evidence, oral
+     and documentary, is given to the accused, who is then allowed an
+     interval to prepare for defence. _If it is a woman, the trial
+     always takes place before a civil tribunal_; if a man, he has the
+     right to claim to be tried before a civil tribunal instead of a
+     court-martial, if he be a British subject. At the trial, whether
+     military or civil, the lawyers for the defence have the same
+     opportunities as are given the accused in an ordinary case in peace
+     times.
+
+     'In the last case involving a woman in this country the offender
+     was of German birth, though technically a subject of another
+     country owing to marriage. She was acting in association with a
+     male spy, and was detected travelling to various points in order to
+     collect information about naval defences. The evidence against her
+     was overwhelming, and did not depend solely on witnesses, but on
+     documents found in her possession and letters written by her and
+     her associates.
+
+     'Going through the preliminary proceedings as previously described,
+     she was tried in September by three civil judges of our High Court
+     and a jury, and was convicted, not of harbouring German soldiers,
+     but of deliberate and persistent spying for the purpose of
+     providing the enemy with important information. Her male companion
+     was condemned to death; she was sentenced to ten years'
+     imprisonment.
+
+     'In the case of a court-martial, reconsideration always takes
+     place; in a civil trial, such as the one just recounted, there is a
+     right of appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeal and consideration
+     by the Home Secretary, who gives his advice as to the prerogative
+     of mercy. In the particular case mentioned the woman did not
+     appeal.
+
+     'In any case when the accused has claimed to have connexion with a
+     neutral country we have not waited for application to be made to
+     us. We thought it right to give the neutral Embassy information of
+     the arrest. It has happened in several cases that the accused was
+     carrying what he alleged to be a United States passport. In such
+     cases, as the others, the American Embassy was consulted, and the
+     solicitors and counsel for defence were retained with the Embassy's
+     approval.
+
+     'Execution never follows a sentence here without a proper interval.
+     Indeed, there was a case not long ago when on the eve of the
+     execution a postponement was requested in order that some further
+     representation might be considered. The sentence was postponed for
+     a week, and the whole case was reviewed in the light of the new
+     material. In a case now pending the accused says he wishes to call
+     evidence from the other side of the world. We don't know whether
+     the evidence will be helpful, but we have postponed the final trial
+     from August to December.
+
+     'Mind you, I am not claiming any credit for the British Government
+     for our procedure. There is nothing unusual, to my mind, in taking
+     care that the accused persons have the fullest opportunity for
+     their defence. The thing that strikes Englishmen as most incredible
+     in the case of Miss Cavell is the calculated indifference with
+     which the inquiries of the American and Spanish Ministers were
+     treated. If the excuse is suggested that in time of war severe and
+     harsh measures have to be taken, our own experience is enough to
+     show that it is possible to combine a regard for the rights of the
+     accused and the respect for humane considerations with the effect
+     of punishment of hostile offences of the most serious kind.
+
+     'It would have seemed impossible for the Germans to do anything to
+     increase the horror produced by their behaviour in Belgium. It
+     would have seemed impossible to do anything which could cement more
+     closely the bond of sympathy between the populations of England and
+     Belgium. But they have accomplished both impossibilities by one
+     horrible act of brutality.'
+
+The foregoing contrast between British and German conceptions of justice
+is practically the difference between barbarism and civilization; and
+Sir John Simon's impressive exposition of the difference between the two
+systems calls for nothing to elaborate it.
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+PULPIT AND PEN UNITE IN DENUNCIATION
+
+
+The publication of the official correspondence affording the details of
+Miss Cavell's stealthy execution raised a storm of righteous
+indignation, which found expression in every pulpit in the British
+Isles; while on the platform or in the press men of light and leading
+joined in their condemnation of the German atrocity. The following are
+but a few notable examples of whole sheaves of similar outpourings.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Bishop of London, in preaching the Trafalgar Day Sermon, at St.
+Martin-in-the-Fields, said:
+
+     'The cold-blooded murder of Miss Cavell, a poor English girl,
+     deliberately shot by Germans for housing refugees, will run the
+     sinking of the _Lusitania_ close in the civilized world as the
+     greatest crime in history. There is one thing about the incident
+     which, perhaps, was not taken into account by those who perpetrated
+     the crime. It will settle the matter once for all about recruiting
+     in Great Britain. There will be no need now of compulsion. I wonder
+     what Nelson would have said if he had been told that an
+     Englishwoman had been shot in cold blood by the members of any
+     other nation? He would have made more than the diplomatic inquiries
+     which have been made by a great neutral into this crime, right and
+     proper as those inquiries are. He would have made his inquiries by
+     the thunder of the guns of the British Fleet, and pressed the
+     question with the Nelson touch which won Trafalgar, as, indeed, our
+     own Fleet at this moment is only too ready to do. But is it
+     possible that there is one young man in England to-day who will
+     sit still under this monstrous wrong? The three million new
+     recruits asked for will be there. Why was she put to death? Why was
+     she murdered? Three thousand thousand Englishmen, and Scotsmen and
+     Irishmen too, will know the reason why. God's curse is on the
+     nation that tramples underfoot and defies the laws of chivalry
+     which once relieved the horrors of war.'
+
+The following is the Rev. F. B. Meyer's eloquent contribution:
+
+     'We may thank God for the chivalrous reverence in which the British
+     race holds womanhood; and how nobly that reverence has been
+     responded to is evident in the unparalleled service which the women
+     of our time have been giving to fill the depleted ranks of labour
+     and to render invaluable service in all departments, from the
+     hospital to the harvest-field.
+
+     'The crowning horror of the German treatment of womanhood is the
+     atrocious murder of this woman, who lived to alleviate suffering,
+     and who only did what any one of us would have done in saving the
+     lives of refugees who sought the shelter of a home. There should be
+     no necessity for executing a woman in war-time; and if it is said
+     that crime is committed in passion, the murder of Miss Cavell is
+     inexcusable even on that ground, because she was executed in cold
+     blood.
+
+     'It is impossible for any British men who are of suitable age and
+     physical fitness for the army to hold back, because it is certain
+     that the measure meted out to Nurse Cavell would be gentleness
+     itself compared to the treatment which would befall our womanhood
+     if once the German invasion triumphed over our resistance.
+
+     'If only the crime that we deprecate to-day would lead us to
+     concentrate our thought on the War, we should be doing more than we
+     realize towards bringing it to an end. The pessimist, the croaker,
+     the grumbler, the critic, work in a contrary direction. Our
+     enemies, with their Hymns of Hate and concentrated venom,
+     endeavour to hurt us, and they forget that passions of that sort
+     recoil on their instigators as poisonous gases roll back with the
+     wind to those who sent them. We do not concentrate in a spirit of
+     revenge or hatred, but in the stern resolve of an entire nation
+     that we shall never stay our hands until our Empire is free from
+     all fear of menace.
+
+     'Miss Cavell has set the world an example of how we should bear
+     ourselves in a supreme crisis. Her heroic conduct, her calm
+     composure in the face of death, cannot be accounted for merely by
+     her temperament. They were due to her religious faith.
+
+     'She died as a Christian, looking towards the Redeemer, and forgave
+     her persecutors, and she will go on ministering still.
+
+     'A life like hers will reverberate through the world. Thousands
+     will be inspired by her example, and long after the War has passed
+     away her name and character will shine like a beacon light in
+     history.'
+
+The Rev. Lord William Cecil contributed a special sermon to the columns
+of the _Daily Telegraph_, of which is quoted only the final portion:
+
+     'Edith Cavell lives in the heart of the nation; nay, in the esteem
+     of the world.
+
+     'She by her deed has won undying renown, and has made England more
+     glorious. Far and wide will they tell the tale, and add--"Of such
+     are the English."
+
+     'The work of the statesman passes. New generations arise, with new
+     problems and new combinations. The victories of the general are
+     forgotten or live in the musty pages of history with dates and
+     sententious comments of the historian. But glorious deeds of
+     sacrifice never die. They live and grow mightier as years roll on.
+
+     'The old English chronicler, Hall, after discussing the question
+     whether Joan of Arc was justly killed or no, adds this
+     comment--that "it matters not, for in a few years the whole story
+     will be forgotten." Poor fool! He forgot that good deeds live, and
+     therefore can never be forgotten. So we shall tell the story of
+     Edith Cavell to the wondering children, and they on their knees
+     will lisp in childish words a prayer that they may grow like such a
+     holy woman.
+
+     'And the ages that are to come will learn her name. Yes, long after
+     other great actors in this awful tragedy are forgotten--when the
+     names of kings and kaisers are lost in the obscurity of the
+     past--the sacrifice made by Edith Cavell will be remembered as we
+     remember the holy deeds of saints and the martyrdom of the
+     Christian virgins.
+
+     'This foul world needs some saint to save it.
+
+     'The world that tells lies, breaks sworn treaties, murders and
+     kills, needs a ransom. Vile as it is, so vile that those who look
+     on it marvel at the depravity of human nature, and now, as a
+     sin-offering, a woman has been offered by the blood-lusting
+     Germans.
+
+     'The sacrifice will surely tell in the great world beyond, and a
+     blessing will come from her death.
+
+     'The heavenly trumpets sound the victory. Fear and cruelty shall
+     not prevail. Honour, love, and sacrifice are conquerors. And this
+     world will be saved from that combination of human power and
+     vileness which is revealed to the world by the Prussian military
+     system.
+
+     'Edith Cavell, by her sacrifice, pleads with God to send
+     righteousness again on this war-torn earth.
+
+     'She will conquer.'
+
+Mr. T. P. O'Connor delivered more than one eloquent speech, and that
+which we quote may be accepted as the voice of Ireland:
+
+     'If ever we had any doubts as to what our duty is in this War, it
+     must have been removed by the events of the past few days. We have
+     given to this cause of liberty one of the noblest figures that ever
+     appeared in the martyrology of liberty throughout the history of
+     the world.
+
+     'I like to think of Miss Cavell as a symbol of our race. By her
+     devotion to duty, her assiduity in her work, her determination to
+     stand by her post, her humanity to the enemy as well as to the
+     friend, her words of courage, and at the same time of broad pity
+     and humanity, even under the shadow of death, that woman has done
+     more to inspire our race in our fight than the gallantry even of a
+     hundred thousand men.
+
+     'I am glad to see that a great newspaper has opened a fund for the
+     purpose of raising an adequate monument to her memory; but no
+     monument of marble or of bronze will speak as her own personality,
+     her own life, and her death.'
+
+The following is extracted from a powerful article by Professor J. H.
+Morgan in the _Graphic_:
+
+     'The execution of Miss Cavell is not, perhaps, the most revolting
+     of the innumerable outrages committed by the German army, but it
+     is certainly the most callous and the most authoritative. Hundreds
+     of women and young girls have been outraged by German officers and
+     men; many have been shot, and others burnt alive. But what
+     distinguishes the case of Miss Cavell--not forgetting the singular
+     nobility of her character--from these obscurer tragedies is the
+     fact that, owing to the presence of the vigilant and high-minded
+     Minister of a neutral State, the veil has been lifted upon the
+     whole proceedings, from their inception to their mournful
+     conclusion in the courtyard of the prison of St. Gilles, and the
+     world has had revealed to it in the most lurid light the sinister
+     character of German "justice."
+
+     'The noble woman who, out of the abundance of her charity, sought
+     to save men from these things has been condemned and executed on a
+     charge of having offended against military law. I know nothing more
+     tragically ironical than that the Power which has broken all laws,
+     human and divine, should seek to justify the condemnation of Edith
+     Cavell with all the pomp of a tribunal of justice. While thousands
+     of ravishers and spoilers go free, one woman who had spent her life
+     in ministries to such as were sick and afflicted is handed over to
+     the executioner. Truly there has been no such trial since Barabbas
+     was released and Christ led forth to the hill of Calvary.'
+
+Mr. G. K. Chesterton contributed a scathing indictment to the
+_Illustrated London News_:
+
+     'There is not much that can be said, or said easily, about the
+     highest aspects of the murder of Edith Cavell. When we have said,
+     "Dear in the sight of God is the death of His saints," we have said
+     as much as mere literature has ever been able to say in the matter.
+
+     'The thing was not done to protect the Prussian power. It was done
+     to satisfy a Prussian appetite. The mad disproportion between the
+     possible need of restraining their enemy and the frantic
+     needlessness of killing her is simply the measure of the distance
+     by which the distorted Prussian psychology has departed from the
+     moral instincts of mankind. The key to the Prussian is in this
+     extraordinary fact: that he does truly and in his heart believe
+     that he is _admired_ whenever he can manage to be dreaded. An
+     indefensible act of public violence is to him what a poem is to a
+     poet or a song to a bird. It at once relieves and expresses him; he
+     feels more himself while he is doing it. His whole conception of
+     the State is a series of such _coups d'etat_. In Poland, in Alsace,
+     in Lorraine, in the Danish provinces, he has wholly failed to
+     govern; indeed, he has never really attempted to govern. For
+     governing means making people at home.
+
+     'Wherever he goes, and whatever success he gains, he will always
+     make it an occasion for sanguinary pantomimes of this kind. And
+     awful as is the individual loss, it is well that now, at the very
+     moment when men, wily or weak, are beginning to talk of
+     conciliatory possibilities in this incurable criminal, he should
+     himself have provided us with this appalling reply.'
+
+Mr. Hall Caine attended the great Memorial Service in St. Paul's
+Cathedral; and below is a short extract from his impressions as recorded
+in the _Daily Telegraph_:
+
+     'What has brought this multitude together? A great victory? The
+     close of a great campaign? The funeral (as at this time last year)
+     of a grand old warrior who, after many glorious victories, has
+     died, as is most fit, within sound of the guns in the War he
+     foretold, and is being borne to his lasting place amid the
+     acclamations of his countrymen and the homage of the world? No, but
+     the memory of a poor woman, a hospital nurse, who has been foully
+     done to death by a barbarous enemy, condemned for acts of mercy and
+     humanity, tried in secret, shot in haste, and then buried in a
+     traitor's grave!
+
+     'What a triumph for religion, for Christianity, for the Church!
+     What an answer to Nietzsche! What a rebuke to Treitschke! What a
+     smashing blow to the all-wise philosophers who have been telling us
+     that Corsica has conquered Galilee! That in these dark and evil
+     days the people of London should assemble in tens of thousands to
+     thank God for the shadow of the scaffold and to find inspiration in
+     thinking of the martyr's end is proof enough that not lust of
+     empire, not "the will to power," not war for its own sake or for
+     the triumphs it brings in its train, but religion, with its
+     righteousness, is still the bread of our souls.'
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+THE LASH OF THE WORLD'S PRESS
+
+SELECTIONS FROM BRITISH JOURNALS
+
+
+_The Times._
+
+     'The ordinary German mind is doubtless incapable of understanding
+     the "horror and disgust" which the military execution of Miss
+     Cavell will arouse throughout the civilized world. We shall be
+     surprised if within the next few days the press of all neutral
+     lands does not re-echo these feelings with an intensity which will
+     astonish the disciples of "Kultur." Here we have in its highest
+     development that boasted product of the Teutonic intelligence and
+     the Teutonic heart. The very spirit of Zabern, but of Zabern in
+     war-time, broods over the whole brutal and stupid story. There is
+     not in Europe, outside Germany and her Allies, a man who can read
+     it without the deepest emotions of pity and of shame. The victim
+     was a lady who had devoted her life to the noblest and the most
+     womanly work woman can do. She was the head of a great nursing
+     institute which has trained numbers of nurses for Germany as well
+     as for Belgium. She herself nursed many wounded Germans at the
+     beginning of the War. She has been sentenced to death by their
+     officers, and shot by their comrades. So is it that the Germans
+     requite the charity of strangers. She had been guilty of a military
+     offence--the offence of harbouring her own wounded countrymen and
+     Belgians amongst whom she had lived and worked, and of getting them
+     across the Dutch frontier. That was enough for the uniformed
+     pedants who tried her, and for their civilian subordinates. She was
+     perfectly straightforward and truthful with the court. They sent
+     her to her death upon her own admissions. They could not, even by
+     their own harsh law, have convicted her without these admissions.
+     Her frankness did not profit her any more than did her sex, her
+     calling, or her services to the Kaiser's wounded troops. There was
+     the fact: she acknowledged certain acts which could be twisted into
+     "conveying soldiers to the enemy," and the legal penalty for this
+     offence under the German military code is death. That was enough
+     for her judges. They sentenced her on a Monday afternoon, and had
+     her shot in the dark at two o'clock next morning. Napoleon ordered
+     a similar "execution" in the ditch of Vincennes. It cost him and
+     his Empire dear.
+
+     'There is not much more to tell. The Councillor to the American
+     Legation was refused permission to visit the prisoner after
+     sentence, and a like refusal was at first given to the English
+     clergyman, Mr. Gahan. This last refusal, worthy of the Jacobins who
+     refused a confessor to Marie Antoinette, was, however, not
+     persisted in, and the doomed Englishwoman had the consolations of
+     her own Church, and received the Holy Communion from Mr. Gahan's
+     hands. He found her "admirably strong and calm." She admitted again
+     her guilt according to German military law, but assured him that
+     "she was happy to die for her country." Her country with one voice
+     acknowledges the claim. She did in very truth die for England, and
+     England will not lightly forget her death. That she had committed a
+     technical offence is undeniable; but so did Andreas Hofer and other
+     victims of Napoleonic tyranny whose doom patriotic Germans never
+     cease to execrate. We do not know whether the hide-bound brutality
+     of the military authorities or the lying trickery of the civilians
+     is the more repulsive. Both were determined that Miss Cavell should
+     die, and they conspired together to shoot her before an appeal
+     could be lodged. They have killed the English nurse, as Napoleon
+     killed the Duc D'Enghien, and by killing her they have immeasurably
+     deepened the stain of infamy that degrades them in the eyes of the
+     whole world. They could have done no deed better calculated to
+     serve the British cause.'
+
+_The Morning Post._
+
+     'Often as in the course of the past fifteen months we have been
+     astounded by the relapses into elemental barbarism which our
+     adversaries have exhibited, perhaps there is no case that shows up
+     so much as this the ghastly descent of the German character into
+     primitive brutality. When it is admitted that the charge was proved
+     true, by the accused's confessions, and that it was a charge that,
+     according to the military code in force at Brussels, might be
+     visited with the penalty of death, all is said that can be said for
+     the real criminals. A proclamation of martial law usually invests
+     the military authority with the power of inflicting the severest
+     penalties over a wide range of offences. This does not mean that
+     that authority is to deal in nothing but death sentences. But it
+     is quite useless to look for any colourable pretext for German
+     remorselessness in this matter. They were resolved from the first
+     to commit this deed of cruelty, but they were feverishly anxious
+     that it should be kept secret until beyond recall. From the moment
+     that the American Legation was known to have got news of Miss
+     Cavell's arrest and to be concerned in seeing that she was properly
+     defended, the German local Government begins to adopt every means
+     for throwing dust in the eyes of the United States representatives.
+     Surely such a story has never been presented to the modern world as
+     is here unfolded.
+
+     'All who have given attention to Napoleonic literature must have
+     recollections of prints of the death of the Duc D'Enghien--the
+     firing party under the glare of the torches, the prisoner standing
+     on the brink of his newly dug grave. In Napoleon's lifetime, and
+     for many years after, nothing hurt his personal reputation more
+     than this summary, furtive execution in the dead of night that
+     seemed to proclaim its own blood-guiltiness. But the great
+     Frenchman acted in this matter with the motives and in the manner
+     of an Eastern Sultan. He saw a man whom, rightly or wrongly, he
+     believed to be a danger to himself; he arrested him lawlessly on
+     foreign soil, and struck him down lawlessly. But what is there in
+     common between such an episode and the midnight execution of a
+     defenceless woman who never meant harm to any human being, who only
+     came within reach of the criminal law by her superior regard for
+     the higher precepts of mercy and compassion?
+
+     'When we think of the scene in that Brussels jail we may well
+     wonder that at this time of day it should be possible to get men to
+     participate in such a deed. Is it that insufficient blood has been
+     shed during this past year that men should hunger after one
+     harmless life? Yet we should evidently make a great mistake to
+     treat our heroic countrywoman's end as if a mere case for
+     compassion.
+
+     'One cannot mourn beyond a certain point for such a death. Who
+     could have dreamed a few years ago that English womanhood would be
+     producing such a heroine--the counterpart and realization in actual
+     life of the Antigone whom the tragedian's inspired imagination has
+     held up to the world's admiration for so many centuries?'
+
+_The Daily Telegraph._
+
+     'We do not know whether any comment would be adequate in a case
+     like this, or whether, indeed, all comment is not superfluous. We
+     have had large experience of the brutality with which the enemy
+     conducts his warfare, and especially the inhuman recklessness with
+     which he pursues his vengeance against the civilian population of
+     the countries which he invades. We venture to think, however, that
+     in the case of a nurse, a woman whose life is dedicated to the
+     alleviation of pain, cruelty of this kind, cruelty that presses
+     against her the very extremity of martial law, is more diabolical
+     even than all the other counts of a growing indictment. No other
+     nation in Europe, we believe, would have put a nurse to death in
+     circumstances of this kind. They would have made some allowance for
+     her woman's tender heart, even though she had been guilty of an
+     offence, and therefore deserved some punishment. Nothing, probably,
+     can now brand with fouler infamy the German name, stained as it is
+     by all the damning items in its past record, from Louvain and the
+     _Lusitania_ down to the murder of an English nurse.'
+
+_The Standard._
+
+     'Those who sorrow for the death of a good and brave Englishwoman
+     who died for her country as truly and nobly as any soldier in the
+     field must most warmly acknowledge the efforts made on her behalf
+     by the Ministers of the United States and of Spain. Everything
+     which could be done by gentlemen of kindly spirit and resolution to
+     save her was done. We are once more under a debt of unbounded
+     gratitude to those neutrals who have, from the first, striven to
+     maintain some of the mitigations of the horrors of warfare which
+     our enemy thrusts aside with contempt. They strained their
+     diplomatic prerogatives to the utmost in the cause of mercy, and,
+     if all their efforts were unavailing to combat the logical savagery
+     of the German military mind, the fault was none of theirs. We must
+     add also that, despite the horror at the outrage which they cannot
+     conceal, the representatives of the United States who have reported
+     are perfectly fair to the Germans. Although their own proposals for
+     the defence of Miss Cavell were rejected, they do not deny that her
+     trial was, in a sense, fair, and that the issue was in accordance
+     with the evidence and the provisions of the German military code.
+     The correspondence of Mr. Brand Whitlock with Mr. Page, and the
+     documents he forwards, gain the greater cogency from their frank
+     avowal of that fact. Murder by process of law is, of course, no
+     rare thing. Judge Jeffreys was a murderer of that kind. But it has
+     always aroused greater anger and contempt among men of right
+     feeling than murder of any other kind, and those, we are sure, will
+     be the feelings aroused throughout the world by the story of the
+     murder of this noble woman, who, if she offended against the laws
+     of her country's foes, could have been so easily rendered harmless
+     by means far less severe. The vengeance of the strong upon the weak
+     is the most abhorrent spectacle in the eyes of all right-minded
+     people which can be exhibited.
+
+     'It would be easy to pour forth vials of denunciation on the heads
+     of the Germans for this act. But it is utterly useless to do so,
+     and, if useless, then weak. A homely proverb says that you can
+     expect nothing from a pig but a grunt, and we know by this time
+     what to expect from our present enemy. Their standard of justice,
+     of manliness, of chivalry, is altogether diverse from ours, and
+     atrocities such as this done on Miss Cavell must simply confirm us
+     in our determination that it is our standard and not theirs which
+     is going to prevail in the world of the future. As one outrage
+     follows another the conviction grows the stronger that the world on
+     the Prussian model would be an intolerable place, and that every
+     man who loves freedom, mercy, and justice had better die than live
+     to see it so. The correspondence must be read in full. We shall not
+     attempt to discuss it in detail. In due course, as we most fully
+     believe, the blood of all those who have perished to slake the
+     brutal German thirst for dominion will be required at the hands of
+     the guilty. On the other hand, the name of Edith Cavell is
+     henceforth enshrined among the patriots and martyrs who have died
+     nobly for the honour of the Empire. May her relatives and friends
+     find comfort in that thought!'
+
+_The Daily Mail._
+
+     'The story of Miss Cavell's arrest, trial, and martyrdom is one of
+     those sublime tragedies which make the deepest appeal to the heart
+     of man. The facts cover the enemy with eternal infamy. The Germans
+     did to death a woman whose whole life had been dedicated to the
+     service of suffering man, for a breach of a barbarous law which
+     they themselves had imposed. All efforts to save her were in vain.
+     The German authorities tricked and attempted to deceive the United
+     States Minister at Brussels, who made the most persistent exertions
+     in her behalf. They evidently hurried on the execution in order
+     that no chance might baulk them of their prey. This is a deed which
+     in its horror and wicked purposelessness stuns the world and cries
+     to heaven for vengeance.
+
+     'Miss Cavell neither grieved nor faltered when she knew her fate.
+     She was happy, she said, to die for her country; and a life which
+     had been generously devoted to a noble work was crowned by an
+     heroic death. It is difficult to say what inspiration a nation does
+     not draw from such an example as hers, which lifts up even the
+     meanest and most selfish heart to new heights of unselfish love and
+     devotion. "To weep would do her wrong." Her life and death are
+     beautiful as those of the saints of old, and will move mankind like
+     immortal music or song. In the truest sense she may be said to have
+     died happy. Her country will never forget her. Her memory will
+     brace our troops in the hour of battle, and when the grey forms
+     close in the North Sea it will be there. Those who die thus have
+     won immortality.'
+
+_The Daily Chronicle._
+
+     'In a War which numbers its casualties by millions, and which has
+     witnessed holocausts of atrocity like the sinking of the
+     _Lusitania_ and the sack of Louvain, the murder of a single lady
+     may seem a small episode. But the enormity of a crime is not always
+     measured by the number of its victims. Here was a lady of education
+     who had devoted her life to the relief of human suffering. The head
+     of a great nursing institute, she had helped to train hundreds of
+     nurses, including Germans. When the War broke out she devoted her
+     whole strength to the care of the wounded, and had lavished her
+     personal attention on wounded German soldiers. Latterly she had
+     assisted certain British, French, and Belgian soldiers to escape to
+     England across the Dutch frontier. Charged with this military
+     offence, she admitted it with complete candour; indeed, she seems
+     to have been the principal witness against herself. One may safely
+     affirm that, having regard to her transparently humanitarian
+     motives and all the circumstances of the case, no Government in the
+     world but the German would have inflicted the death penalty on such
+     a culprit. They not merely inflicted it, but compassed its
+     infliction with a mixture of duplicity and brutality that must make
+     every decent human being's gorge rise. Of Miss Cavell herself no
+     one will dispute that if any death in this War has been heroic,
+     hers was; one cannot say less, and no one could say more. The sense
+     of the whole civilized world can be left to judge between this
+     helpless woman and her murderers.'
+
+_The Scotsman._
+
+     'That Miss Cavell was guilty of an offence against martial law was
+     not denied. But it was not a crime that implied any moral
+     delinquency or transgression of the normal rules of human conduct.
+     On the contrary, it was prompted by the spirit of self-sacrifice
+     and mercy that had guided her whole life, but of which not the
+     tiniest measure was yielded to herself by the men who pursued her
+     to the death. While it may be said that she acted imprudently, and
+     that punishment, and even severe punishment, for her offence was to
+     be looked for, she acted from motives and under circumstances that
+     could only raise her in the eyes of all who are capable of
+     appreciating generosity, courage, and kindness. No suspicion of
+     espionage was attached to her conduct; no accusation of that nature
+     was brought against her; and on being charged with what she had
+     done, she made full and frank acknowledgement. This candour of
+     confession was turned against her as one of the aggravations of
+     her offence. It is made but too clear that the tribunal before
+     which she was hurried thirsted for her blood and for the blood of
+     all who were concerned in the escape of those prisoners from the
+     tender mercies of the Brussels military authorities. Having already
+     lain for several weeks in prison, Miss Cavell was brought before a
+     court-martial, and after a two-days' trial was sentenced to death
+     in the evening and led out to execution early next morning. There
+     was a surreptitiousness as well as a vindictiveness about the whole
+     proceedings that cannot but amaze, as well as horrify and disgust.'
+
+_The Irish Times._
+
+     'If any one in Ireland still fails to see the necessity for
+     resisting to the utmost the extension of Prussian power in Europe,
+     this should open his eyes. It will be equally admitted by every one
+     but her executioners that her sex, her kindness to German wounded,
+     and her charitable intentions in committing the undoubted offence
+     against the law imposed upon Belgium by the conquerors should have
+     been regarded as good reasons for treating her with leniency. All
+     these considerations were ignored by the German authorities. Their
+     haste to accomplish the foul deed without possibility of
+     interference is not out of keeping with the worst that we know of
+     savage races. In utter contrast with their proceedings, there was
+     reported yesterday the hearing in a North of England town of an
+     appeal by a woman charged with attempted espionage against a
+     sentence of six months' imprisonment. The woman was of German
+     descent; she had sought information concerning a shell factory, and
+     she admitted that she would have passed it on to the Germans if
+     possible. Her trial was fair and careful, and she had the fullest
+     opportunity of securing legal advice at every stage. Her appeal was
+     patiently heard. So it is with every case of the kind, whatever may
+     be the nationality of the accused person. British justice has a
+     name throughout the world. Henceforth, so will German justice, but
+     the name will be of other significance.'
+
+_The Nursing Mirror._
+
+     'The heroic and tragic death of Miss Edith Cavell has placed the
+     martyr's crown on the head of this most courageous and patriotic
+     woman, and has consecrated afresh the whole of the nursing
+     profession for her sake in the eyes of the world. Never has the
+     heart of the nation been more deeply stirred than by this crowning
+     deed of infamy; never have the vials of its righteous indignation
+     been poured forth in such a torrent of just anger. The whole of the
+     civilized world has risen as one man to protest against this
+     violation of all the laws of mercy and of judgement against this
+     act by which Germany stands forth for all time alone, apart,
+     leprous and unclean, among the people of the earth. Her words to
+     the chaplain on the evening before her execution were those of
+     quiet courage and resignation. Spoken in the stern solemnity of
+     that prison cell, with the sincerity that comes from the nearness
+     of the eternal dawn, these words carry a force and conviction they
+     might otherwise lack to every one of her fellow workers round the
+     world, and are driven home to each heart like a nail fastened in a
+     sure place.... This day of national adversity is our day of
+     opportunity. In it may we be all "brave in peril, constant in
+     tribulation, and in all changes of fortune, and down to the gates
+     of death, loyal and loving one to another."'
+
+_The Lady's Pictorial._
+
+     'It is difficult to speak of the crime which has blotted the
+     already foul page of Germany's infamy in constrained language. The
+     whole civilized world stands aghast at the callous brutality and
+     deceit of the German officials in Brussels who have done to death a
+     noble Englishwoman; and words are impotent things in which to
+     express the horror, the disgust, the fury, that this brave woman's
+     murder has excited. Nor is it possible to deal in other than
+     conventional phrases with her splendid self-sacrifice. She has died
+     for her country, but she has also won the martyr's crown. Her love
+     for her country was boundless. To serve it she ran a risk the
+     gravity of which she fully recognized, and she freely admitted that
+     in so doing she had offended against military laws. We all know--it
+     is written for all time on the pages of history--how she paid the
+     penalty. There is no need to retell the shameful story, to extol
+     further her splendid heroism, to waste breath in execrating the
+     savages whose name is now besmirched beyond all cleansing; whose
+     blood-thirst has been slaked at the heart of a helpless woman. But
+     it is worth while--it cannot be too often repeated--to cry aloud
+     that Edith Cavell died that her countrywomen may live. Who dared to
+     ask what is one woman among the tens of thousands of men who have
+     perished for their country in view of all that this heroic nurse's
+     slaughter means to England? Dying in her country's service,
+     sacrificed to the savagery of the most treacherous, bestial,
+     merciless enemy against which civilized peoples have ever had to
+     fight, a victim to their lust of hate, she has left to Englishwomen
+     an example and a message which must surely stir them to follow her,
+     if need be, to death.'
+
+_The British Weekly._
+
+     'The Saxon name Edith, which is linked with the most ancient
+     glories of English history, has acquired a new lustre through the
+     sufferings of Edith Cavell. In every church on Sunday preachers
+     sounded the praise of the loving, gentle woman who was shot by the
+     Germans in Brussels in the dark of a mid-October night a few hours
+     before the fleet of Zeppelins started on their flight towards
+     London. Her only crime was that she furthered the escape from
+     Belgium of her countrymen and their Allies. The shield clasped for
+     their sake in her delicate hand was like the buckler of Arthur in
+     Spenser's poem, "All of diamond perfect pure and cleene," and
+     coming ages will see that it was hewn out of the adamant rock.
+     Amid the panoply of the martyrs her diamond shield will burn.'
+
+_The Catholic Times._
+
+     'Baron von Bissing, the German Governor-General of Belgium,
+     recently addressing a meeting of German women in Brussels, said,
+     "We must do our best to carry on here in Belgium a real German
+     'Kultur' work." He has just given the world a proof of what the
+     Germans can do for the promotion of "Kultur" in Belgium. It is a
+     proof which has brought home fully to civilized people the truth
+     that when the Germans are called barbarians there is no
+     exaggeration in the charge. The shooting of women is a relic of
+     barbarism abhorrent to the general feeling of the present day. The
+     execution of Miss Cavell brings into relief once more the main
+     characteristic of German warfare. Laws, civilized customs,
+     honourable traditions, must give way if they obstruct German
+     domination. A multitude of Belgians, male and female, have been put
+     to death with as much cruelty as was displayed towards Miss
+     Cavell. It is needless to say that by revealing their true
+     character during the War the Germans have been fighting most
+     effectively against their own cause. The horror excited by their
+     infamies is worth whole regiments of recruiting-sergeants. Not only
+     in the countries at war with Germany, but amongst the populations
+     of the neutral nations, it produces the firm belief that there
+     could be no greater enemy of popular rights than Germany, and that
+     the success of German "Kultur" work would blast civilization like a
+     deadly blight.'
+
+
+THE VOICE OF FRANCE
+
+The French Senate 'bowed with respect and profound emotion before the
+memory of this heroic martyr to duty, who sacrificed her life in the
+cause of patriotism and of eternal right'; and the French press glowed
+with magnificent tributes to the memory of the brave Englishwoman. One
+of the most striking articles was that communicated to _L'Homme
+Enchaine_ by M. Clemenceau:
+
+     'It was necessary that Miss Cavell, symbolizing in her heroic death
+     and her simplicity an incalculable mass of awful butchery, should
+     rise from her tomb to show the Germans that every soul of living
+     humanity revolts with disgust against a cause which can only defend
+     itself by a most cowardly assassination.
+
+     'The profound truth is that she honoured her country in dying for
+     that which is the finest in the human soul--the conscience of a
+     grandeur of which the greater part of us dreams, and which only a
+     few of the elect have a chance of realizing. This was the lot of
+     Miss Cavell; driven to a wall by a detachment of riflemen, she was
+     walking without a complaint, without a regret, being already no
+     longer of this earth, when a physical faintness made her falter. To
+     me it only makes her appear greater, since, combination of strength
+     and weakness, she thus showed herself woman, purely woman, to the
+     end. "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"--"My God, My God, why hast
+     Thou forsaken Me?"--said Another on His cross, in a moment of
+     weakness and distress by which the splendour of His sacrifice was
+     increased.
+
+     'Edith Cavell did not speak a word; she fell. Thereupon an officer,
+     a representative gentleman of "Germany above everything," a
+     delegate of the Emperor, and, through the Emperor, of "the old
+     German God," carrying out his despicable task of butcher, calmly
+     drew near, placed his revolver at the temple of his victim, pressed
+     the trigger, and then, with his hand red with blood, signed to his
+     "men," if such I may call them, that the work of Germania was done.
+     We shall not forget the name of Miss Cavell, but we do not know, we
+     never shall know, the name of the other. He calls himself a
+     German--that is enough. Every other German would have claimed the
+     honour of carrying out the same task. Since the day of Joan of Arc,
+     to whose memory I know that the British will one day wish to erect
+     a statue, Great Britain has owed us this return. She has given it
+     nobly.
+
+     'Now the Eumenides are let loose--Miss Edith Cavell, murdered by a
+     coward, will live among the men of all ages and of all countries
+     with a life which, for a time of which one cannot foresee the end,
+     will bring shame and torment on the people on whom her blood lies;
+     and that the lesson may be lasting, I should like to see in Rome,
+     Brussels, Nish, Paris, London, and Petrograd, as an indestructible
+     memorial of a community of sentiment, a statue of this noble woman
+     and of the German officer. It would be sufficient to take as a
+     model the excellent drawing published by Abel Faivre in the _Echo
+     de Paris_, in which that fine artist has indicated in a few strokes
+     of sublime grandeur the nobility of the blessed victim, and,
+     without forcing anything, the features of the assassin.
+
+     'Those who come after us, and whose knowledge of the terrible
+     realities of these days will only be derived from cold,
+     dispassionate words, must have before their eyes an image recalling
+     the living facts: Edith Cavell and a Boche without name,
+     representative of a people which, feeling the weight of universal
+     opprobrium, has not found one spark of conscience from which to
+     utter one word of protest.'
+
+_The Journal des Debats._
+
+     'Miss Cavell died like a heroine, like a true worthy daughter of
+     England, the victim of those who would like to have killed her
+     country, and who revenged themselves on a woman. The murder of Miss
+     Cavell deserves to be avenged, and it will be, and in a manner more
+     terrible than the Germans dream of. The soul of England and the
+     soul of France are to-day united over the body of poor but glorious
+     Miss Cavell in a most sacred oath.'
+
+_Intransigeant._
+
+     'The German who cold-bloodedly, without even the excuse of the
+     passion of battle, judged, condemned, and executed Miss Cavell is
+     a monster, a being who has placed himself voluntarily beyond the
+     pale of human law. England, who has furnished us with so many
+     causes for gratitude since the beginning of the War, now offers for
+     our admiration a loyal, strong, and simple heroine. This winter at
+     the feast of Joan of Arc English officers brought flowers to her
+     statue. The French will not forget the great example of Edith
+     Cavell. She has entered the eternal light which shines on the
+     foreheads of heroines and martyrs. For centuries to come little
+     children will spell her name, and learn in the story of her life
+     lessons of courage.'
+
+
+DUTCH PROTESTS
+
+The German reign of terror just over their own borders the Dutch may
+accept as a menace and a warning to themselves; but the assassination of
+Nurse Cavell aroused the most emphatic denunciations of the crime.
+
+_The Amsterdam Telegraaf._
+
+     'Under the fatherly government of Bissing, the Belgians at present
+     have cause to envy the Parisians of 1793 in the Reign of Terror.
+     Not a person is sure of his life, and certainly not an honest and
+     brave person, for the German reign of terror seeks by frightful
+     examples to make the whole of Belgium a nation of traitors and
+     cowards. Love of country, which the Germans themselves claim to
+     honour as the highest virtue, they punish in the enemy as the most
+     frightful crime.
+
+     'In the last fortnight were pronounced ten sentences of death and
+     thirty-two of penal servitude for from ten to fifteen years. Among
+     these death sentences were four women. We wrote once in this
+     journal, "Holland is incapable of shuddering any more." We were
+     wrong. The death penalty on a brave woman has caused the whole of
+     this country to freeze with horror. Openly and unashamed Germany
+     makes herself a nation of outlaws against whom in the future every
+     possible measure of reprisal must be counted as warranted.'
+
+_Nieuws Van Den Dag._
+
+     'What poor psychologists German officials and officers seem to be!
+     They started with the request to the Belgian Government for free
+     passage; they then overwhelmed the neutral press with one-sided
+     reports regarding the _Lusitania_ case and the visits of Zeppelins
+     to undefended towns; finally, incidents of this sort! Everywhere
+     they betray a lack of the most elementary conception of
+     psychology.'
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+AMERICA'S VERDICT
+
+
+Apart from questions of common humanity, Americans are keenly interested
+in the tragical end of Edith Cavell because of the untiring services of
+the American Legation in Brussels, first to see that the accused had a
+fair trial, and, second, their desperate and heroic efforts to gain time
+in which to formulate a final appeal for clemency. The admiration of all
+true Americans must be excited by the account of the humane endeavours
+of their representatives, which lose not a jot because their appeals
+were made to a cold-blooded, ferocious tribunal that is a stranger to
+compassion, and does not subscribe to the ordinary decencies of
+civilized life and practice.
+
+The following press comments indicate the unanimity of the note of
+detestation with which America views one of the greatest crimes of all
+time.
+
+_New York Herald._
+
+     Under the heading 'Nana Sahib in Belgium' was foreshadowed the
+     national abhorrence which will hold Germany to be the moral leper
+     of civilization. Mr. Whitlock's report 'will cause a wave of horror
+     to sweep over the world at the possibility of a nation which is
+     capable of perpetrating such terrible deeds as a mere matter of
+     military routine succeeding in this War and dominating Europe.
+
+     'For the consolation of those weaklings who object to the execution
+     of Miss Cavell it is announced that the black act was done
+     according to German military law, and therefore "legal." So the
+     slayings in Louvain, Dinant, and other blood-soaked spots in
+     Belgium were in accordance with military law, and therefore
+     "legal." The sinking of the _Lusitania_ was therefore similarly
+     "legal." The desolation of Armenia was in accordance with Turkish
+     military law, and therefore "legal." The order of Herod, if
+     re-enacted by the military authorities of Germany, would be in
+     accordance with German military law, and therefore "legal." But the
+     civilized world would denounce it just as it denounced the Belgian,
+     _Lusitania_, and Armenian slaughters, and as it is denouncing the
+     execution of Miss Cavell.'
+
+_New York Times._
+
+     'In the great tribunal of civilization the Germans have done
+     themselves immeasurable hurt by their savagery against those who
+     opposed them. Putting the interests of State above the interests
+     and rights of the individual, putting the ends Germany seeks to
+     attain above all other things on earth, destroying the peace of the
+     world, bringing on the bloodiest War in history, a War that has
+     brought to their deaths millions of the people of Europe and
+     threatens to impoverish great nations, all for the attainment of
+     ends the world has denounced in themselves, and by means which too
+     often have violated the foundation principles of humanity and
+     justice, Germany has brought herself into a position where the
+     world turns from her in horror, and dreads nothing so much as the
+     success of her arms. Man's love of life, the chivalric sentiment of
+     man for woman, tender consideration for the helplessness of age and
+     of youth, all these she has maimed and bruised and defaced with her
+     mailed fist, all these she has trampled under foot. The execution
+     of Edith Cavell but carried out the spirit and purpose of the
+     Imperial military policy.'
+
+_The Sun._
+
+     'In spite of the manifestations of "frightfulness" with which the
+     record is already crowded, we are not willing to believe that
+     chivalry to women is dead in the German army. To the rank and file
+     von Bissing can never be a hero. Doubtless his monstrous deed will
+     be justified; nevertheless, it will sicken the soul of many an
+     honest German officer. And the German women--for woman is true to
+     her sex the world over--will deplore the fate imposed upon one who
+     was the victim of her sympathies. Never has there been a war in
+     which women have not played such a part as this Englishwoman did.
+
+     'Indeed, to all Germans who have not been corrupted by Prussian
+     militarism, the hurried, stealthy shooting of hapless Edith Cavell
+     in the dead of night behind prison walls will always be a bitter
+     memory. More than all the counts in the Bryce Report of atrocities
+     in Belgium it will weigh in the scale of judgement, for it has
+     struck the world with horror.'
+
+_The Tribune._
+
+     'Alive, Miss Cavell was but an offender against German military
+     rules; dead, dead after summary conviction, dead under
+     circumstances that give the incident the character of a midnight
+     assassination and the colour of an atrocity, she becomes to all men
+     of English blood a martyr and an inspiration to new patriotic
+     devotion.
+
+     'The thing is like the Zeppelin raids, it is like the Louvain
+     slaughter, it is like the _Lusitania_ massacre. The wrongs done to
+     the women and children of a race do not terrify the men. They only
+     serve to rouse the spirit, strengthen the arm, nerve the will.
+     "Terribleness" is but the emptiest of threats and the weakest of
+     weapons. There is something almost pathetic in the German dullness
+     to the things that move the world. It begs, whines, pleads for the
+     goodwill and the approval of neutral mankind. It stands almost as a
+     suppliant for the alms of approval of other races. But in the same
+     moment, without warning, without reason, without anything but an
+     incomprehensible stupidity and folly, it does something that shocks
+     the moral sense, the humanity, of men and women the world over.'
+
+_Philadelphia Public Ledger._
+
+     'The Administration has a duty in this matter which it should not
+     overlook. Miss Cavell, as a British subject, was under the
+     protection of the American Legation. The American Minister made
+     both an official and a personal request that her life might be
+     spared. This request was not only refused, it was treated with
+     contempt. Mr. Gibson's report is scrupulously restrained in
+     language, but his indignation may easily be read between the lines.
+     The sentence was carried out with a haste that emphasizes the
+     insults to the United States; the procedure from the beginning was
+     marked by insolence to its representatives. To let the matter drop
+     here would be a confession that this country can neither protect
+     its citizens' interests, nor those of other nations whose interests
+     it has undertaken to guard.'
+
+_The Baltimore Sun._
+
+     'It is difficult to speak in temperate language of the execution of
+     Edith Cavell. ... The world will pronounce this one of the
+     crowning atrocities of cold-blooded brutality. It is impossible to
+     think of it without horror, to speak of it without execration.'
+
+_The Chicago Tribune._
+
+     'The execution of Edith Cavell should and may be the cause of
+     mental awakening on the part of those who have hitherto remained
+     obstinately secure in the face of a world of terrors....
+     Civilization is breaking faster and faster. How far the sword and
+     torch will sweep no man can prophesy, but this we know--the
+     American nation has given to the German Empire an offence greater
+     than that furnished by Belgium, and has not as yet taken any step
+     to protect itself from retribution.'
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+CONCLUSION
+
+
+It may be urged against this simple chronicle of the life and death of
+Edith Cavell that an Englishman could be expected to approach the
+subject only in too heated and partisan a spirit to set forth the case
+dispassionately.
+
+There is no occasion to import factitious bitterness into the tragedy,
+which was born in prejudice, suckled in suspicion, and reared to its
+foul maturity on hatred. All the cogent and damning facts dealing with
+the arrest, trial, and death of the heroic Red Cross nurse are vouched
+for by the American Legation in Brussels; these facts are embodied in
+the statements communicated by Mr. Whitlock to Mr. Page for transmission
+to Sir Edward Grey, and may be read in the British 'White Paper,'
+_Miscellaneous No. 17_ (1915), entitled, 'Correspondence with the United
+States Ambassador respecting the execution of Miss Edith Cavell at
+Brussels.'
+
+The American Legation summed up the truth so far as the Germans would
+allow the truth to be made known--and it may be accepted that what
+details they permitted to escape from their net of secrecy and deceit
+would be only those that would enable them to put the best face on what
+they were pleased to consider merely a regrettable, but inevitable,
+incident of warfare.
+
+In this old world of ours, however, 'murder will out.' Whatever steps
+Potsdam cunning took to keep the secret in its own dark bosom, the
+enormity was disclosed to a scornful world, and the Germans found
+themselves in a common pillory upon which beat the fierce light of a
+merciless criticism and well-merited opprobrium.
+
+The German authorities may be safely left to the judgement of
+fair-minded peoples; and in passing it may be remarked that civilized
+communities have an inherent regard for justice, even when it operates
+to their own immediate disadvantage. It would be a sorry world if it
+were otherwise; how sorry a few nations who consigned their honour to
+the melting-pot can make it, we know only too well. It would be sorrier
+still but for the firm conviction that in the end right will triumph
+over might, justice will prevail over injustice, encouraging us to look
+forward to the time when 'Civilization smiles; Liberty is glad; Humanity
+rejoices; and Pity exults.'
+
+When the welter of blood and the ruinous dissipation of treasure is at
+an end, and we can appraise our tangible losses in life and money and
+endeavour to form some conception of the moral gains resulting from the
+conflict, amid the innumerable individual deeds that make us proud of
+those of our race the heroism in life and death of Edith Cavell will
+shine forth like a precious jewel.
+
+It is well to remember that 'of every tear that sorrowing mortals shed,
+some good is born, some gentler nature comes'; and in her death and the
+tears that we shed for it, the martyr leaves behind her an inestimable
+legacy that will yield rich dividends to humanize the souls of those who
+are left behind to admire and reverence the example of a noble woman.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When the foregoing paragraph was written, one's faith in the strength of
+our Empire and belief in the righteousness of our cause justified the
+sure knowledge that we had not witnessed the real conclusion of this
+pathetic soul-rending incident, that was without exact parallel in our
+varied Empire story; but one could only wait--and wonder.
+
+For three further searing years the war continued its desolating course,
+that entailed the death and mangling of millions of the combatants and
+the expenditure of uncountable wealth.
+
+The end came with dramatic suddenness that almost paralysed the
+suffering nations, who could scarcely realize that intense courage,
+energy, and determination had at length given the Allies the victory.
+
+Even while the Germans stood at the bar of justice at the Peace
+Conference, Mother Empire decided the time had arrived to take Edith
+Cavell to her own broad bosom; and the dust of one of the most gallant
+women of our race was brought from Belgium to be reinterred under the
+shadow of Norwich Cathedral, in the county that must ever be proud that
+it gave her birth.
+
+From Dover the body of Nurse Cavell came through Kent towards the
+capital; the orchards were in full blossom, the fields golden with
+buttercups, every bank blue and white with wild flowers, as if England
+had put on her richest garment to receive her own.
+
+From Victoria Station the funeral _cortege_ passed into the streets
+amid the wonderful stillness and silence of vast crowds, a tribute of
+silence that acclaimed the dead no less surely and splendidly than the
+living heroes of the war had been welcomed home by the heartfelt cheers
+of the multitude.
+
+To the roll of the drums, the stately tread of escorting Coldstreamers,
+the beautiful melody of funeral marches by the Scots and Welsh Guards'
+bands, the gun-carriage and its honoured burden came to Westminster
+Abbey, where, in the shadows of the dim old church, the first portion of
+the funeral ceremony was to be performed.
+
+A great congregation, representing all classes of society, had
+assembled, and the nursing profession and the various branches of the
+women's military services were largely in evidence. For fully half an
+hour the waiting gathering listened enraptured to entrancing and
+uplifting music of the Grenadier Guards' band.
+
+The last notes died away. Suddenly the assembly rose as Queen Alexandra
+was ushered to her seat. With her was Princess Victoria; and the King
+was represented by the Earl of Athlone.
+
+A few moments later the strains of Chopin's funeral march could be heard
+outside the Abbey, betokening the arrival of the _cortege_; and then
+beautiful voices echoed and re-echoed through aisle and transept as the
+choir met the coffin, which progressed slowly from the great west door
+towards the catafalque that waited to receive its noble burden. Tall
+Guardsmen bore shoulder high the coffin, covered with the Union Jack,
+which Edith Cavell had honoured with her life. To rest upon the glorious
+colours Queen Alexandra had sent a magnificent wreath of red and white
+carnations and arum lilies, to which an autograph card was attached upon
+which she had written:
+
+     In memory of our brave, heroic, never-to-be-forgotten Nurse Cavell.
+
+          Life's race well run,
+          Life's work well done,
+          Life's crown well won,
+             Now comes rest.
+                     From ALEXANDRA.
+
+The service was marked by severe simplicity that savoured nothing of
+exultation over a fallen foe; and yet there was the beautiful exultation
+that belongs essentially to the Church of England Order for the Burial
+of the Dead, which proceeded with tense emotion until the congregation
+and choir united in singing 'Abide with me.' The Dean pronounced the
+blessing.
+
+The Dead March from _Saul_ was played with all the poignant appeal of
+rolling and booming drums, wailing reeds, and the triumphant clangour of
+brass. The 'Last Post,' heralded by a roll of drums, commencing so
+softly as scarcely to be audible, swelled to a roar before it died into
+the silence, on which broke the bugles; and last the 'Reveille.'
+
+Out of the shadows of the centuries into the sunlit street the
+flower-decked coffin was borne by the eight Guardsmen bearers to be
+replaced on the gun-carriage, which passed through the crowded City to
+Liverpool Street Station, _en route_ for Norwich, and every yard of the
+way there was evidence that the spirit of Edith Cavell was living in
+the throngs who mourned her loss, even as they honoured her sacrifice.
+
+Later in the day came the final scenes in the obsequies of Edith Cavell
+at Norwich Cathedral, where the ashes of the world-famous victim of an
+unchivalrous foe had come home for sepulture in an atmosphere of
+intimate and almost personal concern. The citizens turned out in tens of
+thousands. Every department of the civic life of the county was
+represented, but again the nurses were in the forefront of the picture.
+Wreaths came from near and far, and among not a few from Belgium was one
+inscribed 'Elizabeth, Reine des Belges.'
+
+The tribute of Empire had already been paid in London, and the closing
+ceremony was more in keeping with the sweet simplicity of her who was
+being laid to rest by the side of her mother amid the peaceful and
+mellow surroundings of the ancient Close, in a sequestered little corner
+called 'Life's Green.'
+
+At the graveside the Bishop of Norwich delivered a touching address, in
+which he dwelt more upon the manner of Nurse Cavell's death rather than
+the work of her life. In conclusion he said:
+
+    'Edith Cavell rests under the shade of our cathedral in its
+    eight-hundredth year, adding one more to the long line of those
+    blessed saints of God over whom it has watched in life and death. We
+    will think of her while her body rests in its keeping as herself
+    alive unto God and present with the Lord, and we will look on to the
+    glad day when she and we and all we love, having waited and watched
+    for the glory of the Resurrection, at last shall see
+
+         The splendour of the morning
+           Dawn on the hills.'
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Printed by the Southampton Times Company, Ltd., 70 Above Bar
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Noble Woman, by Ernest Protheroe
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