militarism to justify
the secret trial and midnight execution of Edith Cavell. Indeed, he
freely intimates that his Government will not spare women, no matter how
high and noble the motive may have been which inspires any infraction of
military law, and to this sweeping statement he makes but one exception,
namely, that women "in a delicate condition may not be executed." But
why the exception? If it be permitted to destroy one life for the
welfare of the military administration of Belgium, why stop at two? If
the innocent living are to be sacrificed, why spare the unborn? The
exception itself shows that the rigor of military law must have some
limitation, and that its iron rigor must be softened by a discretion
dictated by such considerations of chivalry and magnanimity as have
hitherto been observed by all civilized nations. If the victim of
yesterday had been an "expectant mother," Dr. Zimmermann suggests that
her judges and executioners would have spared her, but no such exception
can be found in the Prussian military code. "It is not so nominated in
the bond," and the Under Secretary's recognition of one exception, based
upon considerations of humanity and not the letter of the military code,
destroys the whole fabric of his case, _for it clearly shows that there
was a power of discretion which von Bissing could have exercised, if he
had so elected_.

That her case had its claims not only to magnanimity, but even to
military justice, is shown by the haste with which, in the teeth of
every protest, the unfortunate woman was hurried to her end. Sentenced
at 5 o'clock in the afternoon, she was executed nine hours later. Of
what was General Baron von Bissing afraid? She was in his custody. Her
power to help her country--save by dying--was forever at an end. The hot
haste of her execution and the duplicity and secrecy which attended it
betray an unmistakable fear that if her life had been spared until the
world could have known of her death sentence, public opinion would have
prevented this cruel and cowardly deed. The labored apology of Dr.
Zimmermann and the swift action of the Kaiser in pardoning those who
were condemned with Miss Cavell indicate that the Prussian officials
have heard the beating of the wings of those avenging angels of history
who, like the Eumenides of classic mythology, are the avengers of the
innocent and the oppressed.

"_Greatness_," wrote Aeschylus, "_is no defense from utter destruction
whe