He went out, was gone a few minutes and came back embarrassed, so they
said, even a little bit ashamed, for he said:

[Sidenote: The sad news confirmed.]

"You are right, gentlemen; I have heard by telephone that Miss Cavell
has been condemned and that she will be shot to-night."

Then de Leval drew out the letter that I had written to the Baron and
gave it to him, and he read it in an undertone--with a little sardonic
smile, de Leval said--and when he had finished he handed it back to de
Leval and said:

[Sidenote: The plea for mercy.]

"But it is necessary to have a plea for mercy at the same time."

"Here it is," said de Leval, and gave him the document. Then they all
sat down.

[Sidenote: Von der Lancken's attitude.]

[Sidenote: Miss Cavell not a spy.]

I could see the scene as it was described to me by Villalobar, by
Gibson, by de Leval, in that pretty little Louis XVI. salon that I knew
so well--Lancken giving way to an outburst of feeling against "that
spy," as he called Miss Cavell, and Gibson and de Leval by turns
pleading with him, the Marquis sitting by. It was not a question of
spying as they pointed out; it was a question of the life of a woman, a
life that had been devoted to charity, to helping others. She had nursed
wounded soldiers, she had even nursed German wounded at the beginning of
the war, and now she was accused of but one thing: having helped English
soldiers make their way toward Holland. She may have been imprudent, she
may have acted against the laws of the occupying power, but she was not
a spy, she was not even accused of being a spy, she had not been
convicted of spying, and she did not merit the death of a spy. They sat
there pleading, Gibson and de Leval, bringing forth all the arguments
that would occur to men of sense and sensibility. Gibson called
Lancken's attention to their failure to inform the Legation of the
sentence, of their failure to keep the word that Conrad had given. He
argued that the offense charged against Miss Cavell had long since been
accomplished, that as she had been for some weeks in prison a slight
delay in carrying out the sentence could not endanger the German cause;
he even pointed out the effect such a deed as the summary execution of
the death sentence against a woman would have upon public opinion, not
only in Belgium, but in America, and elsewhere; he even spoke of the
possibility of reprisals.

[Sidenote: The military authority supreme.]