report that Mr. Gahan made there is a
statement, one of the last that Edith Cavell ever made, which, in its
exquisite pathos, illuminates the whole of that life of stern duty, of
human service and martyrdom. She said that she was grateful for the six
weeks of rest she had just before the end. During those weeks she had
read and reflected; her companions and her solace were her Bible, her
prayer-book and the "Imitation of Christ." The notes she made in these
books reveal her thoughts in that time, and will touch the uttermost
depths of any nature nourished in that beautiful faith which is at once
so tender and so austere. The prayer-book with those laconic entries on
its fly-leaf, in which she set down the sad and eloquent chronology of
her fate, the copy of the "Imitation" which she had read and marked
during those weeks in prison--weeks, which, as she so pathetically said,
had given her rest and quiet and time to think in a life that had been
"so hurried"--and the passages noted in her firm hand have a deep and
appealing pathos.

Just before the end, too, as I have said, she wrote a number of letters.
She forgot no one. Among the letters that she left one was addressed to
the nurses of her school; and there was a message for a girl who was
trying to break herself of the morphine habit--Miss Cavell had been
trying to help her, and she sent her word to be brave, and that if God
would permit she would continue to try to help her.

[Sidenote: The petitioners fail.]

Midnight came, and Gibson, with a dark face, and de Leval, paler than
ever. There was nothing to be done.

[Sidenote: Errand of Marquis Villalobar, Gibson and de Leval.]

De Leval had gone to Gibson, and together they went in search of the
Marquis, whom they found at Baron Lambert's, where he had been dining;
he and Baron Lambert and M. Francqui were over their coffee. The three,
the Marquis, Gibson and de Leval, then went to the Rue Lambermont. The
little Ministry was closed and dark; no one was there. They rang, and
rang again, and finally the _concierge_ appeared--no one was there, he
said. They insisted. The _concierge_ at last found a German functionary
who came down, stood staring stupidly; every one was gone; _son
Excellence_ was at the theater. At what theater? He did not know. They
urged him to go and find out. He disappeared inside, went up and down
stairs two or three times, finally came out and said that he was at Le
Bois Sacre. They explained