that the shooting of an Englishwoman and the condemnation of several women in Brussels for treason have caused a sensation.
What extraordinary moral naïveté! How could they appreciate that after the firing squad had done its work and the body of the woman had been given hasty burial the victim's virtues would
"plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against
The deep damnation of her taking off;
And pity, like a naked new-born babe,
Striding the blast, or Heaven's cherubim, horsed
Upon the sightless couriers of the air,
Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,
That tears shall drown the wind."
This happened with incredible rapidity, and the Kaiser made haste to respite the eight other intended victims—two of them being also women—and the Berlin Foreign Office also issued to the world its defense of its action.
It began with an expression of "pity that Miss Cavell had to be executed," but the sincerity of this pity can be measured by the fact that concurrently with Dr. Zimmermann's official apology there came from Berlin an "inspired" supplemental explanation, which sought to depreciate the character and services of the dead nurse by stating "that she earned a living by nursing, charging fees within the means of the wealthy only."
The world has an abundant refutation of this cruel and cowardly slur upon the memory of a dead woman, for one who first hazarded her life and then gave it freely to save the lives of others—for such was the charge for which she died—is not a woman to restrict her gracious ministrations of mercy for mercenary motives.
The Kaiser has been swift to see the deadly injury to his cause of this latest evidence of military tyranny. Not only has he respited Miss Cavell's alleged accomplices—as if to say with Macbeth, "thou canst not say I did it"—but it is said that he has summoned von Bissing and von der Lancken to explain their actions in the matter, but as the Kaiser is responsible for the invasion of Belgium and has hitherto condoned its attendant horrors, he can no more absolve himself from some share of responsibility than could Macbeth disavow his responsibility for the deeds of his two hirelings.
The stain of this murder rests upon Prussian militarism and not upon the German people, for it should not be forgotten that possibly the most chivalrous act which has happened since the beginning of the war, was the erection by a German community, where a detention camp was maintained, of a statue to the French and English soldiers who had died in captivity, with the beautiful inscription:
"To our Comrades, who here died for their dear Fatherland."
What could be more chivalrous or present a greater contrast to the assassination of Miss Cavell?