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...

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 strictn

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

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

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 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

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 pr

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 infinite

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 , ' Oct

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

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

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

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

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, s

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

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 appeal

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 v