Daily Mirror Photograph.
THE REV. FREDERICK CAVELL, FATHER OF NURSE CAVELL.
Daily Mirror Photograph.
MRS. CAVELL, MOTHER OF NURSE CAVELL.
Every holiday in England was spent with the aged mother, who looked forward to these meetings as much as the daughter. Without warning, the war broke into the last of these holidays in the full summer of 1914. Edith Cavell made her mind up promptly. Her holiday was not yet over, but she hurried back at once. “My duty is out there,” she said; “I shall be wanted.”
CHAPTER V.
THE COMING OF THE GERMANS.
We reach now the last year of Edith Cavell’s life, for which all the others had been a preparation. When she arrived in Brussels, the Germans were shelling Liége. The gallant little Belgium Army stood drawn up across the path of the invaders. It was believed that the French and British would soon arrive to drive the Germans back. The Belgian Government was still in Brussels. Cheery Burgomaster Max kept order with his Civic Guard. In the autumn of 1915 we are all wiser.
Miss Cavell has herself described, in an article sent home to the Nursing Mirror, how the bitter truth came home to Brussels:—
Brussels lay that evening [August 20th] breathless with anxiety. News came that the Belgians, worn out and weary, were unable to hold back the oncoming host who might be with us that night. Still we clung to the hope that the English Army was between us and the unseen peril....