Chapter 4

This makes the fate of Miss Cavell our affair as much as that of the Lusitania. And yet we have the already familiar semi-official assurance from Washington that while our officials "unofficially deplore the act, officially they can do nothing." Concurrently we are told in the President's Thanksgiving proclamation that we should be thankful because we have "been able to assert our rights and the rights of mankind," and that this "has been a year of special blessing for us," for, so the proclamation adds, "we have prospered while other nations were at war."

I venture to say in all reverence that the God of nations will be better pleased on the coming Thanksgiving Day--which also should be one of penitence and humiliation--if we do a little more _in fact_ and less in words to safeguard the rights of humanity. Our initial blunder was in turning away the Belgian Commissioners, when they first presented the wrongs of their crucified nation, with icy phrases as to a mysterious day of reckoning in the indefinite future. An act of justice now will be worth a thousand future "accountings" after the long agony of the world is over. "Now is the accepted time, this the day of salvation."

_Let our nation begin with the case of Edith Cavell, and demand of Germany the dismissal of the officers who flouted, deceived, and mocked the representative of the United States. That concerns our honor as a nation._

The final scene of the tragedy is best stated in the simple but poignantly pathetic words of the Chaplain, who was permitted to see the victim a few hours before her death:

"On Monday evening, 11th October, I was admitted by special passport from the German authorities to the prison of St. Gilles, where Miss Edith Cavell had been confined for ten weeks. The final sentence had been given early that afternoon.

"To my astonishment and relief I found my friend perfectly calm and resigned. But this could not lessen the tenderness and intensity of feeling on either part during that last interview of almost an hour.

"Her first words to me were upon a matter concerning herself personally, but the solemn asseveration which accompanied them was made expressedly in the light of God and eternity. She then added that she wished all her friends to know that she willingly gave her life for her country, and 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 realise that patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone.'

"We partook of the Holy Communion together, and she received the Gospel message of consolation with all her heart. At the close of the little service I began to repeat the words 'Abide with me,' and she joined softly in the end.

"We sat quietly talking until it was time for me to go. She gave me parting messages for relations and friends. She spoke of her soul's needs at the moment, and she received the assurance of God's Word as only the Christian can do.

"Then I said 'Good-bye,' and she smiled and said, 'We shall meet again.'

"The German military chaplain was with her at the end and afterwards gave her Christian burial.

"He told me: '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.'"

It would be interesting to compare these last hours of one of the noblest women in English history to those of that rare and radiant Greek maiden, whom the genius of Sophocles has glorified in his immortal tragedy. The comparison is altogether in favour of the English heroine, for while Antigone went to her death bravely, yet her final words were those of bitter complaint and almost whining lamentation. Compare with these words the Christlike simplicity of Miss Cavell's last message to the world, and the difference between the noblest Paganism and the best of Christianity is apparent. Truly the light of Calvary illumined her dark cell! Standing "in view of God and eternity," she uttered the deeply pregnant sentence that "patriotism is not enough." Her executioners had illustrated this, for the ruthless killing of Edith Cavell for military purposes was actuated by that perverted spirit of patriotism which believes that any wrong is sanctified if it serves the State.

No one suggests that General von Bissing had any personal feeling against Miss Cavell. Indeed his conduct would be the more tolerable if it had been actuated by the spirit of anger. He killed her in cold blood and to strengthen the German occupation in Belgium. News of the very recent successes of the Allies in Flanders and in the Champagne districts in the great offensive had reached Belgium and had caused a perceptible ferment in that down-trodden people. It therefore seemed necessary to show the iron hand again and to the Prussian ideal, as already illustrated by official proclamations of Prussian Generals, it was a matter of no consequence whose life was taken or whose right was invaded. It served to terrorize the Belgian people--Such was its real purpose.

And you, women of America and of the World! Will you not honor the memory of this martyr of your sex, who for all time will be mourned as was the noblest Greek maiden, Antigone, who also gave her life that her brother might have the rites of sepulture? Will you not carry on in her name and for her memory those sacred ministrations of mercy which were her lifework?

_Make her cause--the cause of justice and mercy--your own!_

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_Printed in Great Britain._

End of Project Gutenberg's The Case of Edith Cavell, by James M. Beck