Germany much
more harm than good and England much more good than harm. We pointed out
to him that the whole case was a very bad one from Germany's point of
view; that the sentence of death had heretofore been imposed only for
cases of espionage and that Miss Cavell was not even accused by the
German authorities of anything so serious.[12] We reminded him that Miss
Cavell, as directress of a large nursing home, had, since the beginning
of the war, cared for large numbers of German soldiers in a way that
should make her life sacred to them. I further called his attention to
the manifest failure of the Political Department to comply with its
repeated promises to keep us informed as to the progress of the trial
and the passing of the sentence. The deliberate policy of subterfuge and
prevarication by which they had sought to deceive us, as to the progress
of the case, was so raw as to require little comment. We all pointed out
to Lancken the horror of shooting a woman, no matter what her offense,
and endeavoured to impress upon him the frightful effect that such an
execution would have throughout the civilised world. With an
ill-concealed sneer he replied that on the contrary he was confident
that the effect would be excellent.

[Footnote 12: At the time there was no intimation that Miss Cavell was
guilty of espionage. It was only when public opinion had been aroused by
her execution that the German Government began to refer to her as "the
spy Cavell." According to the German statement of the case, there is no
possible ground for calling her a spy.]

[Illustration: Miss Edith Cavell]

[Illustration: Fly-leaf of Miss Cavell's prayer book]

When everything else had failed, we asked Lancken to look at the case
from the point of view solely of German interests, assuring him that the
execution of Miss Cavell would do Germany infinite harm. We reminded him
of the burning of Louvain and the sinking of the _Lusitania_, and told
him that this murder would rank with those two affairs and would stir
all civilised countries with horror and disgust. Count Harrach broke in
at this with the rather irrelevant remark that he would rather see Miss
Cavell shot than have harm come to the humblest German soldier, and his
only regret was that they had not "three or four old English women to
shoot."

The Spanish Minister and I tried to prevail upon Lancken to call Great
Headquarters at Charleville on the telephone and have the case laid
befo