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. Mr. Gahan, the English clergyman connected with the prison, was permitted to see her a short time before her murder. He gave her Holy Communion at ten o'clock on the night of October 11th. To him she declared she was happy in her contemplation of death; that she had no regret for what she had done; and that she was glad to die for her country.
Brand Whitlock, American Minister to Belgium, and Hugh Gibson, Secretary of the Legation, did all that was humanly possible to avert the crime, but without avail. They were told that, "the Emperor himself could not intervene."
Defending the murder, Dr. Alfred Zimmermann, German Under Secretary for
Foreign Affairs, callously disposed of the matter thus:
"I see from the English and American press that the shooting of an Englishwoman and the condemnation of several other women in Brussels for treason has caused a sensation, and capital against us is being made out of the fact. Men and women are equal before the law, and only the degree of guilt makes a difference in the sentence for the crime and its consequences."
Monuments to Edith Cavell were reared in widely scattered communities. A mountain was named in her honor. Her murder multiplied enlistments and fed the fires of patriotism throughout the Allied countries. In the end, Germany lost heavily. The Teutons aimed to strike terror into the hearts of men and women. They only succeeded in arousing a righteous anger that ultimately destroyed the Imperial government.
Another instance equally flagrant of the utter callousness of the men who at that time ruled Germany, was the murder of Captain Fryatt, a gallant British seaman, who had dared to attack the pirates of the under-seas.
Captain Charles Fryatt was the master of the steamship Brussels, a merchant vessel owned by the Great Eastern Railway. It was captured by the Germans on June 23, 1916. Captain Fryatt was taken to Zeebrugge. A court-martial went through the motions of a trial at Bruges on July 27th. The charge against Captain Fryatt was that of attempting to ram the German submarine U-33.