swept through Belgium--and in it
she voiced her pity for the tired, footsore German soldiers,--who were
later to slay her. Brussels became a part of the German Empire and a
tyrannical governor came there to establish his headquarters, issuing
proclamations threatening the Belgians with death for minor offenses,
and filling Brussels with spies and intrigue. Miss Cavell desired to
continue her hospital work and went to the Governor, Von Bissing, to
get permission to do so. He granted it, for the quiet English nurse
made an impression upon him. We are told that the arrogant German
formed a high opinion of her--so much so that he secretly determined to
keep her under the strictest supervision!

From that time on spies dogged her tracks. She cared for the wounded
German soldiers and nursed a number of German officers, as well as the
Belgians who were in her care, but this made no difference to the
authorities. They were determined to detect her in some crime and
punish her. It was not fitting, they thought, that an enemy should be
engaged in works of mercy, even though they themselves might benefit
thereby. And soon spies began to come to the Governor with tales and
fabrications of the crimes that she had been committing in their eyes.
They bore witness that she had given an overcoat to a Frenchman who was
cold and hungry--and the Frenchman later escaped over the Dutch
frontier. Once she gave a glass of water to a Belgian soldier. She had
given money to poor people, perhaps to soldiers. But the main reason
that the Germans hated her was because she was held in great affection
by the people of Brussels.

On the night of August fifth, 1915, we are told, Miss Cavell was tying
up the wounds of a wounded German soldier, when a group of armed men
entered the room and their leader told her roughly that she was under
arrest. A blow was the only response when she tried to expostulate. She
was taken to prison and placed in solitary confinement. Her arrest was
shrouded with the most careful secrecy, for the Germans did not want to
have the representatives of neutral governments, such as the United
States, know of the affair or of what they proposed to do.

But word of her plight did reach England through a traveler, and at
once the British Government requested the American Ambassador, Dr.
Page, to get what information he could from Brand Whitlock, the
American Minister in Belgium. He went at once to the German
authorities, but they