; they did as
they pleased, and would have scorned a Jeffreys as too lenient, a Lynch
as too formal, a Spanish _auto da fe_ as too technical, and a tribunal
of the French Revolution as soft and sentimental. Before them the
accused had literally no rights, not even to present a defense, and if
he was permitted to speak in his own behalf, it was only as a generous
and liberal favor.

It was before such a court that Edith Cavell was to be arraigned. I had
asked Maitre de Leval to provide for her defense, and on his advice,
inasmuch as Maitre Braun was already of counsel in the case, chosen by
certain friends of Miss Cavell, I invited him into consultation.

[Sidenote: Personality of Edith Cavell.]

[Sidenote: Miss Cavell's character and ability.]

Edith Cavell was a frail and delicate little woman about forty years of
age. She had come to Brussels some years before the war to exercise her
calling as a trained nurse. She soon became known to the leading
physicians of the capital and nursed in the homes of the leading
families. But she was ambitious, and devoted to her profession, and ere
long had entered a nursing-home in the Rue de la Clinique, where she
organized for Doctor Depage a training-school for nurses. She was a
woman of refinement and education; she knew French as she knew her own
language; she was deeply religious, with a conscience almost puritan,
and was very stern with herself in what she conceived to be her duty. In
her training-school she showed great executive ability, was firm in
matters of discipline, and brought it to a high state of efficiency. And
every one who knew her in Brussels spoke of her with that unvarying term
of respect which her noble character inspired.

[Sidenote: Mr. Whitlock engages a defender.]

Some time before the trial, Maitre Thomas Braun announced to the
Legation that for personal reasons he would be obliged to withdraw from
the case, and asked that some one else appear for Miss Cavell. We
engaged Maitre Sadi Kirschen.

[Sidenote: The court martial in the Senate chamber.]

It was the morning of Thursday, October seventh, that the case came
before the court martial in the Senate chamber, where the military
trials always took place, and Miss Cavell was arraigned with the
Princess de Croy, the Countess de Belleville, and thirty-two others. The
accused were seated in a circle facing the court, in such a way that
they could neither see nor communicate with their own counsel, w