Chapter III: Part 3

'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

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