It placed the German military
command in a niche of dishonor unique in all history.
The specific charge against Miss Cavell was that she had helped English
and French soldiers and Belgian young male civilians to cross the border
into Holland. The direct evidence against her was in the form of letters
intercepted by the Germans in which some of these soldiers and civilians
writing from England thanked her for the aid she had given to them.
Upon the farcical trial that resulted in the predetermined sentence of
death, Miss Cavell courageously and freely admitted her assistance in
the specified cases of escape. When she was asked why she did it, she
declared her fear that if she had not done so the men would have been
shot by the Germans. Her testimony was given in a clear conversational
tone that betrayed no nervousness and her entire bearing was such as to
win the sympathy of everyone except her stony-hearted judges.
The German officers in command at Brussels made it impossible for Miss
Cavell to see counsel before the trial, and a number of able lawyers who
were solicited to undertake her defense declined to do so because of
their fear of the Germans.
Sentence was imposed upon her at five o'clock on the afternoon of
October 11th. In accordance with its terms, she was taken from her cell
and placed against a blank wall at two o'clock the following
morning--the darkness of the hour vying with the blackness of the deed.
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