was worse to go back to the Legation to the little
group of English women who were waiting in my office to learn the result
of our visit. They had been there for nearly four hours while Mrs.
Whitlock and Miss Lamer sat with them and tried to sustain them through
the hours of waiting. There were Mrs. Gahan, wife of the English
chaplain, Miss B., and several nurses from Miss Cavell's school. One was
a little wisp of a thing who had been mothered by Miss Cavell, and was
nearly beside herself with grief. There was no way of breaking the news
to them gently, for they could read the answer in our faces when we came
in. All we could do was to give them each a stiff drink of sherry and
send them home. De Leval was white as death, and I took him back to his
house. I had a splitting headache myself and could not face the idea of
going to bed. I went home and read for awhile, but that was no good, so
I went out and walked the streets, much to the annoyance of German
patrols. I rang the bells of several houses in a desperate desire to
talk to somebody, but could not find a soul--only sleepy and disgruntled
servants. It was a night I should not like to go through again, but it
wore through somehow and I braced up with a cold bath and went to the
Legation for the day's work.

The day brought forth another loathsome fact in connection with the
case. It seems the sentence on Miss Cavell was not pronounced in open
court. Her executioners, apparently in the hope of concealing their
intentions from us, went into her cell and there, behind locked doors,
pronounced sentence upon her. It is all of a piece with the other things
they have done.

Last night Mr. Gahan got a pass and was admitted to see Miss Cavell
shortly before she was taken out and shot. He said she was calm and
prepared and faced the ordeal without a tremor. She was a tiny thing
that looked as though she could be blown away with a breath, but she had
a great spirit. She told Mr. Gahan that soldiers had come to her and
asked to be helped to the frontier; that knowing the risks they ran and
the risks she took, she had helped them. She said she had nothing to
regret, no complaint to make, and that if she had it all to do over
again, she would change nothing. And most pathetic of all was her
statement that she thanked God for the six weeks she had passed in
prison--the nearest approach to rest she had known for years.

They partook together of the Holy Communion, and she who h