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". . . Here and there, a whispered word, even 
 though uttered without bad intention, has 
 many times ruined the good name, the reputa- 
 tion and even the life of somebody." 
 
 Edith Cavell. 
 

 Edith Cavell 
 
 hisA. 
 
WITH EDITH CAVELL 
 IN BELGIUM 
 
 BY 
 
 JACQUELINE VAN TIL 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 H. W. BRIDGES 
 1922 
 
■Il6"50 
 
 ©ci 
 
 A1074984 
 
 HAY 28 1323 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 In giving to the public this simple and appeal- 
 ing story written by Miss Van Til, we wish to 
 say that the proceeds of its sale are to be devoted 
 to the work of the Richmond Memorial Hospital, 
 Princess Bay, Staten Island. 
 
 Miss Van Til hopes to found here in this coun- 
 try community, located within the limits of the 
 World's Greatest City, a training school and home 
 for nurses, in memory of Miss Cavell. 
 
 Fortunately for us, our little institution seems 
 to have revived in her appealing memories of that 
 other ''little Hospital," the ''Clinique," at Nos. 
 143-149 "rue de la Culture." 
 
 Certain it is that at least one of her nurses has 
 kept the faith so bravely handed on to them in 
 the wonderful letter of October loth, 191 5, "Cul- 
 tivate in your life more loyalty and a Holy 
 spirit." 
 
 Inez Corcilius, 
 
 For the Trustees. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 When, a year ago, I came to the United States, 
 I was often forced to speak in broken English 
 about the five wonderful years which I spent in 
 Brussels under the same roof with England's 
 martyred nurse, Edith Cavell. 
 
 Many persons seemed to be interested in what 
 I had to say ; among them was a friend, Mr. Jose 
 de Muro, who advised me to write for the Ameri- 
 can people what I knew of Miss Cavell's life while 
 with her in Belgium. 
 
 I tried, but my slight knowledge of the English 
 language made my task a very difficult one. 
 
 I am aware that many pages of this humble 
 narrative are not of great literary merit. But I 
 do claim that every word of it is true. 
 
 Jacqueline Van Til, 
 
 Former Trained Nurse of 
 Edith Cavell, Brussels. 
 White Plains, April 27, 1921. 
 
Jacqueline Van Til, R. N. 
 
WITH EDITH CAVELL 
 IN BELGIUM 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 BEFORE THE WAR 
 
 It was in the month of December, 1910, that 
 a friend and I were going, for the first time, to 
 the "Edith Cavell CHnique," called "L'ecole Beige 
 pour les Infirmieres Diplomees," in Brussels. 
 
 The weather was very cold that evening, when 
 we rang the bell at what was to be our future 
 home, and we were not sorry to have reached a 
 place of shelter. A well-dressed maid opened the 
 door, and conducted us to the room where Miss 
 Edith Cavell was at work. This was the first 
 time we had met. She made a deep impression 
 on us. I distinctly remember that we felt quite 
 uneasy at her gaze, for she impressed us as being 
 very tall and distinguished. At that time of her 
 life, she was about forty years of age. Her eyes 
 
 9 
 

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 Otyt-C-^.^t^ A^^A^^ tLx^^C.*^!^*^,*^ . 
 
 /2/fl.t^ "^^^^ue^ '^£^^^ ^ ^^.^t-^c^A:: t 
 ^)C.dU<^^^ ^U^-tTUJ' f^^rt^ ^ 
 
 Original letter of Edith Cavell, which I received from 
 her in 1910. 
 
 10 
 
I49» Rue de la Culture, 
 
 Brussels, 
 Telephone 9559. 
 Mademoiselle : 
 
 I have the pleasure of informing you that you 
 are accepted as a pupil nurse on probation as well 
 as your friend, Miss Stenton. 
 
 Will you have the kindness to inform me on 
 what day you will be free to enter our school ? 
 
 Pray accept, Mademoiselle, my respectful salu- 
 tations. 
 
 E. Cavell, 
 
 Directrice. 
 loth October, 1910. 
 
 II 
 
12 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 were blue; they would soften while she talked to 
 us, but would become very stern and dark, when 
 the little maid that was there dared to interrupt 
 us. Her mouth was expressive, the lines around 
 it were hard, both lips were extremely thin, — a 
 trait that denoted strength of will and firmness 
 of character. Her hair, a dark blonde, with 
 silver strands at the temples, was neatly coiled on 
 the back of her head. Her voice was clear and 
 precise, and she spoke the French language with 
 a charming English accent. Her movements were 
 simple, and her little hand felt very soft when 
 she grasped ours to welcome us to her home. She 
 conducted us to our rooms and showed us the 
 places where the nurses were allowed to go, and 
 where they could amuse themselves with music 
 or with needle-work. 
 
 Our ''clinique" was not very large; and from 
 the outside looked rather poor and inadequate. 
 It was composed of four ordinary houses, two 
 of them for the patients and two for the nurses 
 and the servants. The numbers of the latter were 
 149 and 147, and those of the former 145 and 
 143. They were situated in the '*rue de la Cul- 
 ture," a street that formed part of a suburb of 
 Brussels named 'Txelles," and were about an 
 hour's walk from that city. 
 
BEFORE THE WAR 13 
 
 Because those four houses were much too 
 small to contain all the nurses, Miss Cavell had 
 decided to lodge some of the latter in another 
 house at No. 140, in the same street, where she 
 rented ten rooms for the private nurses, the public- 
 health nurses, and nurses who worked outside the 
 little ''clinique." 
 
 The patients' rooms were well furnished and 
 were painted white. The small operating-room 
 was very well equipped indeed. Many patients 
 were quite thankful to go to the small ''clinique,'* 
 which was sometimes called '"The English Nurs- 
 ing Home," in the ''rue de la Culture." 
 
 In these houses we had room for thirty patients 
 and each one had his own doctor. These were all 
 private cases, but sometimes we nursed some poor 
 chronic cases from the community, though, as 
 a rule, we had only well-paying patients. 
 
 The nurses were obliged to be trained in differ- 
 ent hospitals, as the ''clinique" was too small to 
 give them a good training. These nurses were, 
 for the first year, under Miss Edith Cavell's 
 special care, and they were given lectures and re- 
 ceived practical training from fourteen physicians. 
 The second year, she sent them to the different 
 hospitals which she had founded during the time 
 she was there; and, after three years of training 
 
14 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 elsewhere, they came back to her own hospital, 
 where she perfected them in the science of nurs- 
 ing the sick. 
 
 Until now, there were very few Belgian girls 
 at the *'clinique," as our Belgian people were not 
 yet able to understand the meaning of Nurse- 
 work. Most of us were strangers from different 
 countries, — from Germany as well as from France 
 and England; and all of us had to speak French 
 when on duty. We were sixty in all, when my 
 friend and I came here, in 1910, and I never shall 
 forget how comical this little place seemed, filled 
 as it was with the loud laughter and songs of the 
 nurses, each in her own tongue. 
 
 Miss Cavell never objected to various nationali- 
 ties, all she required of us was obedience to her 
 orders as well as to those of her assistant super- 
 visors. This we well knew, and in all the years 
 that I served her, I never met with a nurse who 
 dared to disobey. 
 
 During the first year, we stood in fear of her, 
 for her remarks were oft-times severe and laconic. 
 We never dared to come too late to table, knowing 
 beforehand that we should encounter the stern 
 reproach of her dark blue eyes, and the hard 
 expression of her lips. How sorry I am, now, 
 when I think of those moments during which we 
 
Sister Wilkins and Jack, Miss Cavell's 
 Shepherd Dog 
 
BEFORE THE WAR 15 
 
 nurses used to talk together about her and criti- 
 cise her as being too severe! We Httle under- 
 stood at that time, that her task was so difficult; 
 that she was all alone in looking after the organ- 
 ization and management of everything she had 
 founded. 
 
 When, in the year 1907, she came to Brussels, 
 as a private nurse to the Graux family. Dr. 
 DePage, one of our great surgeons, noticed the 
 wonderful gifts of this English nurse. This doc- 
 tor had encountered many difficulties in his work, 
 on account of not having been properly assisted 
 in nursing. He wished to start real trained nurs- 
 ing for the sick in Belgium, as it existed already 
 in England and Holland. He talked the matter 
 over with some rich persons in his city, and with 
 Miss Cavell's friends, the Graux family. A com- 
 mittee was formed, and they offered Miss Cavell 
 the position of superintendent of a home where 
 young girls could be trained as nurses. 
 
 For this purpose they rented four houses in 
 the *Vue de la Culture," and had them arranged 
 into a small *'clinique." Some publicity was given 
 to the undertaking, and many posters were affixed 
 to the walls of the houses of Brussels, with the 
 words: ''Young Girls Wanted/' etc., written in 
 large red letters. 
 
i6 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 When Miss Edith Cavell entered upon her new 
 undertaking, in October, 1907, she had only four 
 nurses, and two supervisors. The latter were 
 English and did not know a word of French. 
 Moreover, of these four nurses, three were Swiss 
 girls, and the fourth was a Belgian girl, the only 
 one of that nationality there. 
 
 Speaking to me on this subject, Miss Cavell 
 said that the beginning had been very trying in 
 the small "clinique." The doctors, she added, 
 had been too familiar with the nurses, and the 
 English rules of her hospital were not always 
 followed. 
 
 Her will was strong, however, and she fought 
 bravely against the lack of funds on the one hand, 
 and the insincerity and narrow-mindedness of 
 individuals on the other, but, in spite of these 
 obstacles, she came off victorious. 
 
 After one year's experience of trained nursing, 
 in her establishment in the *Vue de la Culture," 
 the doctors began to value her abilities, and to 
 treat the nurses with more respect. 
 
 It was at this time that, at the large Hospital 
 of St. Gilles, under Dr. DePage, the nuns were 
 dismissed, and Miss Cavell was installed in their 
 place. The same change occurred in Dr. Meyer's 
 sanatorium, where she laid down the first rules 
 
BEFORE THE WAR 17 
 
 for the training of nurses, and, when I came, in 
 1 910, she was already at the head of several hos- 
 pitals in Brussels, together with the Tuberculosis 
 Hospital at Buysinghen, a little village in Wal- 
 lonie, Belgium. 
 
 The same year, with only three workers, she 
 placed nurses in the public-schools. In 191 5 there 
 were twelve of them. She also sent trained 
 nurses out on private cases. 
 
 Her task was very hard indeed, for the mem- 
 bers of the committee had lost some interest in 
 the small ''clinique," and financial help was lack- 
 ing; so that Miss Cavell had to depend entirely 
 upon herself for the management of everything; 
 for the young nurses, whom she was striving to 
 convert into useful help, were thoughtlessly amus- 
 ing themselves, while she was worrying over the 
 lack of funds and the many other difficulties she 
 had to encounter in her task. 
 
 In the years 19 10 and 191 1 very few changes 
 occurred. I attended the classes for trained 
 nurses, and like the other nurses I was sent to the 
 different hospitals. Miss Cavell, whom we were 
 in the habit of calling "Madame," used to walk, 
 three times a day, to and from the different places 
 where she sent her nurses, and she was invariably 
 followed there by her two dogs, Jack and Don. 
 
i8 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 I can still imagine I see her, walking along, with 
 a slight stoop, accompanied by one of the patients, 
 smiling pleasantly at the children whom she met 
 along her way. 
 
 All the patients were fond of her, and in the 
 whole ^'clinique," there was not a soul who could 
 give more comfort to a suffering patient than she, 
 and though she had many duties to fulfil, yet she 
 always found time to sit at the bedside of pain 
 and sorrow, where she would minister to the sick, 
 and inwardly pray for the sufferer's soul. 
 
 Every night, at eight o'clock, we were required 
 to attend the class-room, where it was her habit 
 to instruct us in everything relating to the differ- 
 ent diseases. She was indefatigable in teaching 
 us, and never spared herself in anything that re- 
 quired labor. When I look back, now, to that 
 time, I cannot help but feel ashamed of myself 
 to think that I, sometimes, could scarcely keep 
 awake during the lecture, and when she would say 
 to me, in a soft voice, "Mile. Van Til, won't you 
 please sit next to me ? I don't think that you can 
 follow the lecture very well," I could not keep 
 from showing my chagrin. During my first year 
 with her she seemed not to take much notice of 
 me, but often the nurses would be called to her 
 
BEFORE THE WAR 19 
 
 office to be admonished for loud laughter, and 
 also advised to be careful of their manners. 
 
 In 1 91 2 I was taken ill, and was transferred 
 to a small room on the second floor, where Miss 
 Cavell personally took care of me. I still can feel 
 the touch of her soft white hand, gently gliding 
 over my hair, her deep blue eyes peering into my 
 fever-flushed face. 
 
 She nursed me through it all, and when I was 
 able to sit up, she would sit by my side and 
 assure me that the good Lord had been with me 
 all the while. She moreover told me that from 
 that time on she would be like a mother to me. 
 I shall ever recall those moments with gratitude 
 and emotion, so clear and strong is their image 
 engraved in my soul ! 
 
 As I did not look strong upon leaving the sick- 
 bed, "Madame" sent me to England to recuperate 
 at her sister's home in Henley-on-Thames. The 
 husband of the latter was a Dr. Wainright. They 
 lived in a charming house called ''Upton Lodge." 
 Here T met her dear old mother, and her other 
 sister, Florence, who was a superintendent in a 
 London Hospital. While I was stopping here I 
 learned that Miss Cavell was born in 1865, in the 
 vicinity of Norwich, and that her father had been 
 a clergyman, who, when he died, left his wife in 
 

 
 ^^ 
 
 
 tP.A. 
 
 Postcard from Edith Cavell while she was 
 IN England 
 
 20 
 
My dear Nurse : 
 
 I think you are right to go on with your studies. 
 We will talk about it, when I come back. Thanks 
 very much for your nice card. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 E. Cavell. 
 
 21 
 
22 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 the care of his daughter Florence. Miss Cavell 
 had a brother whom I did not see ; but, while there, 
 I met many of her friends, who belonged to some 
 of the best families of England. 
 
 After remaining at her sister's home for a few 
 weeks, I was sufficiently recovered to be able to 
 return to the small ''clinique" in Belgium, and 
 continue my work. 
 
 Here a few changes had occurred, during my 
 absence in England. The committee was now 
 being assisted by a Mr. Goldsmith, a wealthy 
 banker, who offered to furnish money for a new 
 Nurses' School to be built in the "Rue de la 
 Bruxelles." I remember, one evening, having 
 been shown the plans by "Madame," herself, and 
 I noticed how happy she was about it. She de- 
 termined to look after all the plans. She suc- 
 ceeded so well that the new Nurses' Building was 
 started in 191 3. This same year I worked per- 
 manently with her in the "clinique," while I 
 learned more and more about her great ability, 
 and when she went to her home in England, to 
 spend her vacation with her family, I was left in 
 charge of a section of the place. 
 
 When she returned from England, in August, 
 1 91 3, she had with her a young girl of fifteen, 
 
BEFORE THE WAR 23 
 
 named Pauline Randell, whom she had found 
 abandoned by her parents. 
 
 "Madame" decided to become a god-mother to 
 the girl, and employed her as a general help around 
 the house. From that time on, ''Madame," 
 Pauline, and Jack, the shepherd dog, could be seen 
 strolling together every day to the different hospi- 
 tals where some of her nurses were employed. 
 
 We nurses did not take kindly to Pauline, and 
 we detested Jack. Her other dog, Don, had been 
 stolen from her in 191 1, to our great delight; for 
 he annoyed us with his pranks; but Jack became 
 fiercer than Don had been, and though he was a 
 true and faithful dog, yet he would try to bite 
 everyone who dared to look at his mistress. As 
 regards Pauline, our dislike for her was from 
 another cause. She was not a wicked girl, but 
 she was haughty with us, and of a jealous dispo- 
 sition, and had a way of reporting us to her mis- 
 tress for the slightest error in our duties. Per- 
 haps it is unkind of me to write this, and also 
 unkind in us not to have been more generous and 
 fair towards her and the dog; because they both 
 rendered great assistance to their mistress in 
 this house of many troubles. 
 
 This same year, Madame Marie DePage, wife 
 of Dr. DePage, began to take more interest in 
 
24 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 the work of nursing than she had hitherto done; 
 she now assisted "Madame" in the administration 
 of the hospital, and was very kind to us. Al- 
 though her character was quite the opposite of that 
 of ''Madame," yet they agreed, and, after a short 
 time, they became close friends. Here I cannot 
 help thinking how strange it seems to me that 
 both these high-souled women died for their coun- 
 try, each of them in such a sad way. 
 
 In the beginning of the year 191 4 there was an 
 Armenian boy, named "Jose," who had been edu- 
 cated in Belgium, and of whom "Madame" took 
 great care. This boy had shown himself to be 
 honest and faithful, and he showed such a good 
 character that she took him into her service, where 
 he performed special duties allotted to him by 
 his mistress. I make particular mention of this 
 boy, in this place, because he afterward became 
 well known to us, and played a worthy role in 
 the sad drama of Miss Edith Cavell ; and, like so 
 many others who served in the same cause, he, 
 too, has been forgotten. 
 
 As usual, at the end of July, of the same year, 
 "Madame" took her vacation in England with 
 Pauline, leaving a supervisor named Miss Wilkins 
 in charge of the "clinique." The very day after 
 she left, I went to Lille, to pay a visit to some 
 
BEFORE THE WAR 25 
 
 friends of mine there, little dreaming that a great 
 war was impending, and menacing the existence 
 of my country and my own happy and peaceful 
 life. When I reached the French border I was 
 forced to remain for the whole night at the small 
 station of Quevy. Everybody was talking about 
 Germany, but I did not pay much attention to it. 
 I reached Lille the next day, and there, too, every- 
 one seemed very much upset. I decided that it 
 would be best for me to return to Brussels. I 
 arrived there on the fourth of August and went 
 straight to the "rue de la Culture," where I found 
 that Miss Cavell and Pauline had just come back 
 from England. 
 
 ''Madame" appeared very calm, as she usually 
 was, and said to me that she thought it best for 
 her to stay with her nurses, now that their country 
 seemed to be in danger. In spite of her calmness, 
 however, many of her nurses left, first the German 
 and then the Dutch girls, reducing greatly the 
 personnel of the already small *'clinique." 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 OUTBREAK OF WAR 
 
 Those were very troublesome days, just before 
 the war was declared. "Madame" had a hard time 
 trying to keep the young nurses together, and 
 endeavored to calm them by assuring them that 
 it would probably not occur, or that, at all events, 
 it would not last long. Her efforts were all lost, 
 however, for when on the very next day, the 
 fifth of August, 1 91 4, the Belgian Army officers, 
 in their war automobiles, drove up and down the 
 streets to call up recruits for the army, all our 
 nurses were seized with a panic. Yet it was 
 "Madame" who told us to think of our patients, 
 and to remain and do our duty toward them. She 
 succeeded in calming us, and did not seem very 
 anxious, for she herself was at that time convinced 
 that the Germans would never reach Brussels. 
 
 We got most of the beds of our "clinique" ready 
 to receive wounded Belgian soldiers. Nearly all 
 the patients had left — many of them in great haste 
 
 26 
 
OUTBREAK OF WAR 27 
 
 — because of their fear of the Germans; and like 
 all the rich, they went to the sea-shore, thinking 
 that the Prussians would never dare to come there. 
 
 All the wealthy men of Brussels who did not 
 desire to join the army, had their homes made 
 ready for the wounded. We called these little 
 hospitals "ambulances." There were more than 
 twelve hundred of these in existence when the 
 Germans finally arrived. 
 
 Our *'clinique," as I have mentioned above, was 
 situated in a suburb of the city, and by this time 
 no patients remained, so that "Madame" sent some 
 of her nurses, myself included, to a large ambu- 
 lance base in the city. A few days before this, 
 the King and Queen had left for Antwerp. The 
 royal consort had previously given up her beau- 
 tiful palace to be used as an ambulance station, 
 and Marie DePage had been received there by Her 
 Majesty as its superintendent. 
 
 Dr. LeBoeuf, the Queen's private physician, 
 assisted Mme. DePage, and remained attached to 
 this ambulance base throughout the war. 
 
 In those days, when we first heard the German 
 cannons booming over the frontier, and when their 
 soldiers seemed, each moment, to be coming 
 nearer and nearer — we had not, as yet, known 
 what war really was — everything so peaceful and 
 
2S WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 calm in our *'clinique" to which we returned 
 every night from the city to rest. 
 
 In the St. Jean's Ambulance, where I worked, 
 there was only one Belgian patient, so far, and 
 he had never seen a German. He was a bicyclist 
 that had been sent to Liege, but never reached 
 there, having fallen from his wheel and broken 
 his left arm. Being the only wounded soldier we 
 had in our place we made much of him, and you 
 can imagine what a glorious time he had ! 
 
 Things were not yet so very sad in Brussels; 
 the streets were lively and crowded with recruits 
 for the army, and our little ''JASS," * laughing 
 and hopeful, was starting for the German border. 
 Even at the railroad stations we met with smiling 
 faces, and no one seemed to realize the gravity 
 of the event. What did we know, at that time, 
 about war and cannons? But, alas, when the 
 Germans finally did enter Brussels, we could 
 hardly believe our eyes ! 
 
 Sorrow, now, took the place of gaiety on those 
 faces which but a short while before had been 
 so full of sunshine and levity. Had it not been 
 for our Burgomaster, the brave Mr. Max, many 
 terrible events might have occurred. 
 
 * "Jass" is the Flemish term for the Belgian soldier, like 
 the word 'Toilu" is for the French. — Author's note. 
 
OUTBREAK OF WAR 29 
 
 Our misfortunes had already begun, when we 
 heard the sound of the German cannon close to 
 the Belgian capital, just as the last trains had 
 left it for the sea-shore. 
 
 We, now, were beginning to feel very uneasy. 
 During the evenings, the excitement in the streets 
 was profound, and the windows of the German 
 business houses and stores were broken by angry 
 Belgian citizens, who would become exasperated 
 upon hearing anyone speak with a foreign accent, 
 and immediately try to knock the strangers down. 
 
 The excitement was considerably increased 
 when some Belgians came with the news that 
 Louvain, that proud and famous old Flemish 
 town, was burning, though the daily paper, "Le 
 Soir," one of the few that were still issued, had 
 not mentioned the disaster at all — probably with 
 the thoughtful intention of keeping the people 
 quiet. But when the first refugees from Ter- 
 vueren, a small village about five miles from the 
 Belgian capital, arrived and informed us of all 
 the horrors committed by the Germans in Lou- 
 vain, we were utterly horrified. 
 
 I shall never forget the evening before the Prus- 
 sians entered Brussels, when some of the nurses 
 and I went up to the roof of our "clinique" and 
 saw the sky, toward the East and the North-East, 
 
30 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 all a fiery red with glaring rockets and exploding 
 shells, and accompanied by enormous clouds of 
 thick, black smoke, which came rolling ominously 
 in our direction. It was an awe-inspiring sight, 
 and Its effect was greatly increased by the terrific 
 din of the ever-booming cannon, the concussion 
 of which was so intense that many window-panes 
 were broken around us. 
 
 Many persons fled in great haste from Brussels, 
 abandoning their former happy homes to the 
 mercy of the cruel invaders. 
 
 All our nurses were crying and trembling with 
 fear. I, too, was frightened. ''Madame" found 
 me sitting on the landing of the stairs, weeping 
 bitterly. She peered into my upturned face, with 
 that calm powerful gaze of hers, with something 
 mild, yet full of firm reproach in it, and bade 
 me not to give way to my feelings, that my life 
 no longer belonged to myself alone, but also to 
 my duty as a nurse. And she finally succeeded 
 in calming me, as she did the other nurses; for, 
 whenever there was an occasion for her to use 
 persuasion, she always knew the proper thing to 
 say to her nurses. 
 
 So, the very next day, I went as usual to the 
 Ambulance Station where I had been detailed to 
 work. We had nothing to do there, however, for 
 
u 
 
OUTBREAK OF WAR 31 
 
 the solitary Belgian soldier-patient of whom we 
 had to take care had nearly recovered from his 
 broken arm. The time seemed to drag on us; 
 from nine o'clock until two, the hours seemed to 
 us to creep very slowly along. 
 
 Then, all at once, our janitress, a very stout 
 woman, suddenly ran into the hall, shouting ex- 
 citedly in French : ''Les Boches sont la ! Les 
 Boches sont la !" * We were all thrown into a 
 state of confusion, and seemed spell-bound, the 
 medical staff as well as the nurses. One of the 
 doctors burst out crying, some of the nurses 
 fainted. I was trembling all over with excitement, 
 and I thought that the best thing for me to do 
 was to go outdoors and get some fresh air. Im- 
 mediately I, together with my friend, Miss Sten- 
 ton, went out into the street, where thousands 
 of citizens, with blanched faces, were standing 
 mournfully around. 
 
 We followed some of the crowd to the street 
 corner, but when we reached the place we could 
 not hear a word that was said. We then went to 
 the barracks situated in the suburbs, to get some 
 information from the guardians there, but not a 
 soul was to be seen. The large buildings were 
 quite deserted. This made things look sad, in- 
 * Meaning, "The Huns are coming !" — Author's note. 
 
32 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 deed, to us; and to add to our sorrow, nature 
 itself appeared to be laughing at our misfortunes, 
 and seemed to conspire against us with the 
 enemies; for the golden sun was pouring its bril- 
 liant light over the long columns of the German 
 troops that were steadily advancing toward us. 
 My friend and I both sat upon a rail fence by the 
 road-side to view the rows upon rows of on- 
 coming soldiers. They were approaching from 
 four sides, and they looked like monster snakes 
 with sinuous, winding bodies issuing from be- 
 tween the tall grass on either side of the road. 
 
 In spite of our fear and hatred of these foes, 
 we could not help being fascinated at the sight of 
 this great army, the pick of the German troops, 
 as they passed in front of us, looking rosy-faced 
 and well-fed, though somewhat awkward, with 
 their heads held stiff, and the proud, triumphant 
 smile of the conqueror on their faces. They ad- 
 vanced in rows of eight men each and between 
 their ranks some poor Belgian prisoners were 
 walking painfully along in their bare feet. This 
 was a piteous sight indeed for us to view, and at 
 it, our hatred for our country's foes grew sud- 
 denly strong, and impelled us to remain where we 
 were, and gaze our fill. When we had seen 
 enough we found a means of following a section 
 
OUTBREAK OF WAR 33 
 
 ^^ ^Viese troops to the ''Grande Place de Brus- 
 sels," or tne pii,xv.:j,al square. Here Mr. Max, 
 our brave Burgomaster, was awaiting the arrival 
 of the Germans. 
 
 Everyone was now quiet in the street. The 
 shop-windows were all tightly closed ; the curtains 
 in all the houses were lowered, and all this, by 
 order of our prudent Burgomaster, who, the 
 evening before, had announced that all individuals 
 who did not follow these rules would not be 
 considered as true Belgians. This notice was 
 posted on all the walls of Brussels. 
 
 It was here, in "La Grande Place" of the Capi- 
 tal of Belgium, that the well-beloved Burgomaster 
 received the German Commander, a tall, heavily 
 built man, who demanded the surrender of the 
 city. Accordingly, Mr. Max, standing upright, 
 his head erect and his face deathly pale, decorously 
 handed the keys of the city, the emblem of its 
 liberty, to the smiling and bowing conqueror be- 
 fore him. I was not close enough to see his eyes, 
 but I am certain that persons standing near him 
 could not fail to notice the dignified gaze of our 
 beloved Burgomaster. 
 
 In the evening of the same eventful, weary day, 
 several German papers placarded on the city 
 walls, proclaimed to the inhabitants that the 
 
34 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 ''Prussians were our masters." But, between tw^ 
 large notices, could be seen - -maiier proclama- 
 tion, printed in red ink, in French and in Flemish, 
 which ran thus : 
 
 "We are Belgians ! The only legal master we have 
 is our rightful sovereign, King Albert. The pres- 
 ent conquerors may have rules for their own people. 
 We Have Ours !" 
 
 Signed : 
 
 Max, Burgomaster of Brussels. 
 
 The very next day, he was sent away to Ger- 
 many, as a prisoner, and he remained an exile 
 there for the duration of the war. 
 
 This made a very sad impression on the hearts 
 of our people, and caused the circling war-clouds 
 to appear darker and darker around our beloved 
 city. 
 
 As a consequence of the entry of the Prussians 
 into Brussels, everything in our ambulance 
 station was entirely changed, we now had many 
 German soldiers to nurse, that had been wounded 
 at Liege, Louvain, Tervueren and other places 
 along the invader's line of march. 
 
 On the evening before, when "Madame" had 
 called us together, to impress the idea upon us, 
 that it was our duty, above all, to nurse all the 
 
OUTBREAK OF WAR 35 
 
 wounded of whatever nation, under the influence 
 of her powerful will, I did not dare to make 
 known to her my profound disgust for my 
 country's foes. So that I, together with the rest 
 of the nurses, went, as was our custom, to the 
 ambulance station, to aid in allaying the suffer- 
 ing of the injured patients; for some of the latter 
 were badly wounded and also ill-clad. 
 
 Among our hospital supplies, we had much 
 clothing that had been donated by wealthy 
 patrons, but it was made for Belgian soldiers, 
 who, as a rule, are small in stature and light 
 of weight; so that when we had to put these 
 under-sized garments on the tall, big, clumsy Ger- 
 man patients, they were, of course, much too 
 short and too tight, making the Prussians appear 
 so ludicrous to us that, in spite of our sorrows, 
 we could scarcely keep from laughing. 
 
 Here I shall have to relate what occurred to 
 the solitary Belgian soldier that was still in our 
 care. The next day after the Bodies arrived, he 
 remained hidden away in a small room in our 
 building, and we, fearing that he would be caught 
 by the enemy, determined upon helping him to 
 escape. So, that night, we led him to the gardner's 
 house, and there he managed to give the Huns the 
 slip. I have never, since then, heard what became 
 
36 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 of him; though I have still the image of his large 
 blue eyes with their childlike kindly expression, 
 strongly engraved on my mind. 
 
 The days that followed these soul-stirring and 
 painful events in our city were filled with trouble 
 and sadness to the Belgian people. The arrival 
 of the German troops, and the Proclamation of 
 their commander completely changed our former 
 conditions; from the free and happy people that 
 we had been so shortly before, we were now re- 
 duced to the state of unhappy prisoners. The 
 enemy soon made us feel their authority. Every 
 day, there would occur many arrests of Belgian 
 citizens, who had not followed the new laws of 
 the invaders. The latter had already taken full 
 possession of the city, and had installed them- 
 selves in the abandoned homes of those of the 
 inhabitants that had fled to the seashore, or to 
 England and Holland. All the military barracks, 
 as well as all the public schools, and ambulance 
 stations were crowded to the brim with German 
 soldiers, who deliberately destroyed the stores of 
 carefully sewn military clothing — the work of 
 our brave Belgian women — that had been hastily 
 abandoned by our retreating army. 
 
 The departure of our King and Queen made 
 things seem all the sadder for us, since the details 
 
OUTBREAK OF WAR 37 
 
 of it were so conflicting. When we thought that 
 the Royal couple were still in Antwerp, they were 
 actually running a thousand dangers on the sea, 
 on their way to England. 
 
 Food and all the daily necessities of life had, 
 by this time, become excessively expensive, and 
 some of the most useful commodities were allowed 
 to be taken only by the invaders ; so that there was 
 very little indeed left for us. 
 
 Two days afterward, the enormous army of the 
 Germans (greatly increased by the continuous 
 arrival of fresh troops from the Fatherland), was 
 divided into two main fighting bodies, of which 
 one division was sent to Antwerp, through Malines 
 and Termond, both of which towns they ruthlessly 
 destroyed, the other division was sent to France, 
 by way of Waterloo, Mons, Namur, Charleroi, 
 etc. 
 
 The cannon were booming night and day, and 
 the horrid din of exploding shells was appalling. 
 The forts of Antwerp fell, one after another, and 
 it seemed to us that darkness and horror had 
 chosen a dwelling place within our souls. 
 
 "Madame" alone, was as calm as ever. She 
 continued tranquilly to direct us in all our duties. 
 
 So far, nothing was changed in our small 
 "clinique." The reason for this was that the 
 
38 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 suburb in which it was situated was somewhat 
 remote from the German Headquarters, and that 
 the enemy preferred to dwell in the city itself 
 rather than in such an out-of-the-way place as was 
 Ixelles; and therefore we had not yet been an- 
 noyed by their presence. 
 
 * 'Madame" went, every day, accompanied by 
 Pauline and Jack, to the St. Gilles' Hospital, 
 where some of her nurses were still working; 
 she, also, went daily to the place where the build- 
 ing for the new Nurses' Training School had 
 been started, which she could still visit without 
 the least hindrance from the invaders. 
 
 Nevertheless, every night, she would call us 
 together and seem to search into our inmost souls 
 to see if we lacked courage; and she would en- 
 deavor to instil into us ideas of hope and fortitude. 
 Up to the present time she had not shown much 
 concern about the enemies' advance into our 
 country. She did not speak much about them to 
 us. Yet, she showed the loving tenderness of her 
 womanly nature, by her constant solicitude for 
 the welfare and care of the wounded. 
 
 As for myself, I still frequented the Ambulance 
 Station, where, already, many of the enemies' 
 wounded were to be found, some of them strug- 
 gling in the throes of death. Many were mere 
 
OUTBREAK OF WAR 39 
 
 lads, and many, fathers of families, people just 
 like our own, but our enemies now, dying around 
 us, and most of them laboring under the impres- 
 sion that they had conquered, and had reached 
 their long cherished goal — 'Taris !" 
 
 We cared for them, just the same as if they 
 were our own wounded. But, when some of the 
 least injured recovered sufficiently to be able to 
 carry a gun, they were immediately sent to the 
 front for the purpose, as we knew only too well, 
 of killing our brothers and fathers. This was a 
 cruel destiny for us, indeed, to be forced to help 
 in nursing back to health these, our country's 
 foes, only to assist them in gaining a victory over 
 our own brave men. In spite of that, we took 
 good care of these suffering soldiers. 
 
 These wounded soldiers were, as a rule, polite 
 enough to us, and did not talk much with us about 
 the actual war conditions. The reason of this 
 was, as I learned later, that they really did not 
 know much about them. Yet it sometimes hap- 
 pened that one of the younger German lads, or, it 
 might be, some uneducated German farmer, for- 
 getting that his life was in our hands, out of 
 overweening Teuton pride, would endeavor to 
 show us weak, defenceless nurses his strong love 
 for the Kaiser, by sketching a rough portrait of 
 
40 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 him on the wall of his room, with the word 
 "Paris" near it; and then the likeness of 
 Napoleon, with the word "Waterloo" underneath. 
 These were moments hard for us to bear, and 
 though by our forced calmness, we showed no out- 
 ward indignation, yet, inwardly, we were not lack- 
 ing in resentment. 
 
 In the beginning of September, 19 14, the Ger- 
 man Red Cross Nurses arrived, and they imme- 
 diately replaced us in this Hospital Base. Our 
 doctors and our nurses were dismissed, of course, 
 and I went back to our "clinique" in the "rue de 
 la Culture," where I remained to help "Madame." 
 There was only one patient left, a Mme. De Vos, 
 one of our laundry women, who had to undergo 
 some operation. With the exception of hers, all 
 the rooms were without occupants. Yet Madame 
 enjoined us to keep the beds still prepared, as it 
 was customary, and to have the rooms cleaned 
 every day. We did not quite understand her 
 reason for all this work, in a tenantless "clinique," 
 nevertheless we did as she bade us. 
 
 The personnel in the clinique at that time con- 
 sisted of six pupil-nurses, together with the super- 
 visor. Sister Wilkins, and myself. Besides 
 Pauline and Jose, there were the housemaids, the 
 linen-room and laundry help. Our other nurses 
 
OUTBREAK OF WAR 41 
 
 were doing work in the different hospitals which 
 Madame had started, and the school-nurses were 
 still occupied in the public-schools of Brussels. We 
 were all in excellent health, and only suffered from 
 the quality of the food, which was beginning to 
 be poor. In spite of all we had gone through, we 
 were not very anxious; and even when Madame 
 Marie DePage came to us from the Queen's 
 Palace, she did not bring any unusually bad news. 
 She, too, like ourselves, and Miss Cavell, thought 
 that the war would soon be over. Such was the 
 life we were leading in September, 191 4, only a 
 very few days before our most strenuous work 
 commenced. 
 
 Notwithstanding all we had experienced, we 
 had up till now remained like light-hearted 
 thoughtless children, and though we could begin 
 to see anxiety and sorrow in Madame's kindly 
 face, still, we did not yet fully realize the gravity 
 of our situation; nor did we foresee the terrible 
 fate that was impending over the principal per- 
 sonages of our humble little ''clinique." We did 
 not even give the least thought to what might 
 happen to us all. But, that evening, when we got 
 hold of an English newspaper, in which it was 
 made clear to us that at Charleroi, in Belgium, the 
 English and the French soldiers had been obliged 
 
42 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 by overwhelming numbers, to retreat into France, 
 our long cherished dream of a speedy conclusion 
 of the war faded rapidly away, and we were again 
 plunged into a state of despair. ''Madame" no 
 longer essayed to cheer us at her piano with her 
 music and her songs, but, instead, she would talk 
 to us every night about our duty to help the 
 wounded soldiers, a duty that we could, at that 
 time, with difficulty understand, since there were, 
 as yet, no injured or maimed troops, in the 
 "clinique" for us to nurse. 
 
 It was on the 26th of September, 1914, that 
 "Madame" called us to her office, to explain to 
 us that the German army had reached the French 
 frontier, and also to inform us that many Bel- 
 gian soldiers were at that moment without food 
 and shelter. She, moreover, told us that it would 
 be a very worthy and charitable act for us to give 
 up our salaries to these destitute and hungry men. 
 At first, we were quite surprised at this request; 
 we had some difficulty in grasping her intention 
 in wishing us to tender them our aid, for, until 
 then, she had not shown any interest whatever 
 in the matter relating to this horrid war. 
 We were somewhat reluctant to part with the 
 few five- and ten- franc pieces — the meagre 
 amount of wages that we received from her — 
 
OUTBREx\K OF WAR 43 
 
 that we had to be very economical withal. See- 
 ing our hesitancy she tried to persuade us, by 
 stating that it would be a good way for us to 
 show our self-sacrificing love and devotion to 
 our unhappy country, in thus coming to the aid 
 of these needy souls. She, moreover, added that 
 she would herself take charge of the fund and 
 relieve us of all the extra worry or responsibility 
 that the good work would entail. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE FIRST REFUGEE 
 
 We were now actually forced to realize to what 
 an extent the war had reached, and how hard 
 it was to bear the many evils that it brought into 
 our former peaceful mode of life. We had, after 
 the first excitement of the invasion, been getting 
 used to war conditions, and as the seat of the 
 actual fighting receded farther and farther from 
 us in Brussels, we, like all the^other citizens there, 
 gave little thought to it, alas ! Now, the frightful 
 effects of real war were beginning to be keenly 
 felt by us ! 
 
 On the evening of the 27th, — a day that I shall 
 always have impressed upon my mind — the 
 weather was splendid, and the only thing that 
 marred it was the continual distant booming of 
 the cannon all around us. We were all seated at 
 our supper, about 7 o'clock, with, as was cus- 
 tomary, ''Madame" at the head of the table. It 
 
THE FIRST REFUGEE 45 
 
 had been a standing order of hers, that while at 
 her meals, Madame was on no account whatever 
 to be disturbed by any one. But that evening, 
 however, her strict rule was destined to be broken. 
 She was suddenly interrupted by Marie, her maid, 
 who boldly entered the room, and in a low tone 
 said something to her mistress that I could not 
 understand. ''Madame" arose, and immediately 
 left the table. Such an occurrence had never be- 
 fore taken place. We continued our repast, never- 
 theless; but as soon as it was over, we all pro- 
 ceeded to the class room, as was usual with us, 
 and engaged in useful occupation. I was occupied 
 with some needle-work, when ''Madame" hastily 
 entered the room, spoke a few words in an under- 
 tone to Sister Wilkins, then, turning toward me, 
 requested me to follow her to her private room. 
 I arose and accompanied her there. I can dis- 
 tinctly remember how many times I have gone to 
 this identical room, whenever there was any mo- 
 mentous occasion for so doing, and how many 
 moments I have spent there. As I was following 
 "Madame" to her room, that evening, I could not 
 help wondering why she looked so deathly pale 
 and seemed so sad. 
 
 I little thought that, in a few minutes, I, too, 
 would be looking just as pale and worried; and 
 
46 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 not without good cause; for before me, there 
 were two nearly unclad, haggard, starving men 
 seated in Madame' s office. One of the men ap- 
 peared to me, at first sight, to be a soldier; but 
 I could not then distinguish whether he was a 
 friend or a foe. I inquired of Madame what she 
 wished me to do. She merely said, 'Take the 
 young man who cannot talk, and whose name is 
 Pierre, to room No. 9, and the other young man, 
 who is called Louis, must be conducted to room 
 No. 12, where he is to be taken care of by 
 Mademoiselle Paula Van Bock Staele." 
 
 Obedient to her orders, I led, or rather, I half 
 carried this ragged haggard-eyed, feeble, poor 
 fellow to his allotted room, and gave him some 
 food which he eagerly swallowed, as he looked 
 at me with feverish blood-shot eyes. When he 
 had finished eating, I laid him on a couch, and 
 got a warm bath ready for him. His body was 
 in a frightful condition from the hardships he 
 had gone through, and there was also a wound 
 that needed careful attention. He did not speak 
 a word; but upon removing the remnant of what 
 served him as clothing, I found an object, that 
 was eloquent enough. There was an English 
 flag wound round his breast! I instantly knew 
 that he was an English soldier. That very mo- 
 
THE FIRST REFUGEE 47 
 
 ment I began to be anxious for his safety, and 1 
 thought then, as Madame told me later she also 
 thought, that he must be concealed from his foes. 
 I knew not a word of English. All I could say 
 was, "Vous English?" "Yes, yes," he replied. 
 
 I was so upset about it all, that I actually forgot 
 what to do. He looked up helplessly into my face, 
 poor fellow, with such an appealing expression 
 that the mere sight of it caused the tears to pour 
 down my cheeks. He bent his head forward and 
 kissed me on my hands. 
 
 ^Whence did he come?" "Who was he?" I 
 could not find out, not having a knowledge of 
 English, which was evidently his mother tongue. 
 He was a soldier, too, and would not speak a 
 word, being bound by honor not to betray his 
 friends. The other dilapidated and haggard 
 looking man, his comrade in distress, was also 
 an English soldier. 
 
 Needless to say, that this event threw us all 
 into consternation, and this it was that had caused 
 "Madame's" face to become so anxious and pale. 
 In fact, it was a very serious matter — two English 
 soldiers, allies of the Belgians, in our midst, and 
 the city in the hands of the ruthless German in- 
 vaders! Without our consent, and by force of 
 circumstances, we were breaking the enemies' 
 
48 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 rules ! Already, the latter, in red and black letters, 
 had placarded on the walls of Brussels the fol- 
 lowing notice: ''Any male or female who hides 
 an English or a French soldier in his house or on 
 his premises, shall be severely punished." 
 
 Before this event took place, we used to read 
 this notice without much concern, not fully realiz- 
 ing the gravity of its meaning; but, now, its full 
 meaning burst only too clearly upon our minds. 
 Here we were with two wounded and starving 
 English soldiers in our home ! What were we to 
 do? We were hospital nurses, and surely, it was 
 our duty to help these sick and wounded men ; and 
 help we must. But it was a serious case for us 
 to undertake; and if I felt anxious about it, 
 "Madame" also, must have certainly felt much 
 more so than I. But, in spite of her anxiety, she 
 decided to follow the dictates of humanity and 
 fulfill her duty by taking proper care of these 
 two unfortunate men. 
 
 Such was the state of our minds when we re- 
 tired for the night, after having wished our new 
 patients a good-night. When I reached my room, 
 I felt so tired that I immediately fell asleep, and 
 did not even worry about the danger that lurked 
 in our home. Our confidence in "Madame" was 
 
THE FIRST REFUGEE 49 
 
 so great that we thought that everything she did 
 was always right. 
 
 After having rested for two days, these two 
 EngHsh soldiers both looked so refreshed and 
 good humored that it made us feel quite happy 
 to see them. They were two as good-looking 
 young men as one could wish to behold, and most 
 of our girls were infatuated with them. We cer- 
 tainly gave them a very pleasant time, during the 
 eight days they remained with us. We supplied 
 them with cigarettes, and with plenty of English 
 books. We had a most amusing time trying to 
 converse with them; but with our limited stock 
 of English words, we were greatly handicapped; 
 we could only talk about the weather or the state 
 of our health. Still we kept up a continuous fire 
 of rapid conversation, after the French fashion, 
 with the piano going most of the time, and man- 
 aged to keep them gay and lively all the while. 
 It was a pleasure to see their blue eyes brighten, 
 and their faces break into a happy smile, as soon 
 as they caught a glimpse of a nurse's white cap 
 at the threshold of their rooms. 
 
 * 'Madame" came three times every day to their 
 sick chamber to inquire after their health, and 
 also to see if we were doing things rightly; and 
 even Pauline, whenever she got the opportunity, 
 
50 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 would come and chat with the EngHsh patients, 
 while Jack, the faithful shepherd dog, would 
 mount guard at the door. 
 
 Meanwhile, outside, in the street, German sol- 
 diers would sometimes walk by, and cast a casual 
 glance at our modest ''clinique," but without ever 
 paying any marked attention to it, as there was 
 nothing of a suspicious nature in the looks of the 
 open windows and the wide open door of our 
 home. These men were probably some of the 
 advanced guard of straggling soldiers, who were 
 on leave, and were enjoying a stroll through our 
 suburb, after having enjoyed themselves with the 
 amusements of the Belgian metropolis. But none 
 of these men ever annoyed us, and moreover they 
 were not very numerous ; for at that moment, only 
 a small army was left to guard the Capital; the 
 great mass of the invading German forces was 
 actually engaged in its rapid advance across Bel- 
 gium into France. 
 
 So our English "Tommies" were not molested, 
 and they remained with us for eight days, where, 
 during the whole of that time they were royally 
 entertained by us. One night, in the beginning of 
 October, ''Madame" told me to wake her at four 
 o'clock in the morning, as well as the two sol- 
 diers, who were obliged to leave our place for some 
 
THE FIRST REFUGEE 51 
 
 safer destination. She, moreover, ordered our 
 Armenian boy Jose to prepare bread and coffee for 
 the two men, and a lunch bag containing ten shces 
 of bread for each one. I did as I was told to do, 
 and, accordingly, the next morning at four o'clock, 
 I found her ready dressed, wearing a blue cloak 
 and a black hat. The two men were also ready 
 and neatly clad in workingmen's clothes. After 
 having drunk a cup of coffee and eaten a morsel 
 of bread, they all went out into the still darkened 
 street — first ''Madame" and Jose, and then the 
 two English soldiers, the latter following at a 
 little distance. The two disguised Tommies 
 seemed very brave about it, and walking boldly 
 away, soon disappeared from our view. 
 
 We felt very sad at losing two such bright good 
 fellows, who had brought so pleasant a change 
 into our midst; and we were, moreover, sorry 
 because we did not know what became of them. 
 
 Three hours later, ''Madame" returned with 
 Jose only. We understood by this that she had 
 accompanied these men to another place of safety; 
 and we were forbidden to make any further men- 
 tion of the affair. 
 
 Immediately afterward "Madame" retired to 
 her office, and in an hour or so, she sent for me 
 to inform me that the next night we were to 
 
52 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 receive nine more men, and that I must get the 
 beds ready for them. On the following morn- 
 ing, I happened to be opening the door, when a 
 young woman of about thirty-two years of age 
 walked into the sitting room and asked to see 
 Miss Cavell ; but, before I could deliver the mes- 
 sage, ''Madame" herself came to greet her, and 
 led her into the private office, where they re- 
 mained for quite a while. When the young lady 
 came out of the office, "Madame" introduced her 
 to me as being a Mademoiselle Martin, which 
 was an assumed name, however, for her real one 
 I afterward learned was "Louise Thuilliez." The 
 lady then went away. 
 
 Later in the day, I saw Mile. Martin again, 
 together with the nine men who "Madame" had 
 said were to be brought to our place. Of these 
 nine men, eight were English soldiers, the re- 
 maining one was a Frenchman. How they ever 
 managed to reach us without being noticed by the 
 enemy, in the broad daylight, is more than I 
 could, at that time, understand ! 
 
 These English soldiers, of course, could not 
 speak a word of French or of Flemish, and in 
 these troublous times, it was rather a dangerous 
 thing even for a Frenchman to speak his own 
 language, with his accent so markedly different 
 
THE FIRST REFUGEE 53 
 
 from that of the Belgians, without running the 
 risk of being detected by the Germans. This risk 
 was still greater for the English to run, as they 
 could be more easily recognized. 
 
 All these men appeared to us to be very much 
 worn out by the severe hardships which they 
 had undergone. We hastened to minister to their 
 wants. We prepared baths and gave them food, 
 after which we helped them to their beds. All 
 this gave us so much extra work that we were 
 obliged to get the house-servants to help us in 
 nursing these wornout men. 
 
 That evening a young working man from the 
 city called on ''Madame." She conversed with 
 him in her office for a short while, then she pre- 
 sented him to me, saying, "This is Mr. Gilles, the 
 guide." I looked at him, and, at first sight he 
 appeared to me to be a man of about thirty- two 
 years of age, rather poorly dressed, with a rosy 
 face, and blue eyes that had a very honest look 
 about them. 
 
 I could not understand where all these men 
 had come from, and, as for themselves, they either 
 could not or would not tell anything about their 
 affairs. 
 
 I was brooding over this matter for a while, 
 and after quite an interval of hard work attend- 
 
54 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 ing to them, I summoned courage enough to ask 
 * 'Madame" whether she would tell me whence they 
 came. The look that came into her deep blue 
 eyes, as she gazed into mine, will remain forever 
 impressed upon my mind. After a slight pause, in 
 which interval she seemed to be searching keenly 
 into the very depths of my soul, perhaps with 
 the intention of discovering whether I was trust- 
 worthy enough to be taken into her confidence, 
 she decided to tell me the following facts : When 
 the German army had advanced as far as Char- 
 leroi, a desperate encounter took place there from 
 August the 2 1 St to the 25th, and it is now famous 
 in history as the ''Battle of Mons-Charleroi." 
 This we all know to-day, but at that time 
 "Madame" only knew of the dogged retreat of 
 the English and French, where, on account of 
 the enemies' overwhelming numbers, and power- 
 ful artillery, many a brave young English soldier 
 and many a French "Poilu" lost his life. 
 
 It was about these agonizing days of terrible 
 ruin and disaster that "Madame" spoke to me. 
 After the gigantic human avalanche of German 
 invaders had swept fiercely by with disconcerting 
 rapidity, their commanders were too much en- 
 grossed by the vastness of their warlike enter- 
 prise to pay much attention to the casualties they 
 
THE FIRST REFUGEE 55 
 
 had caused, during the preHminary battles they 
 had fought in their quick advance toward the 
 French capital. Thus it was that many an out- 
 of-the-way battlefield where the British and the 
 French had struggled with the enemy and lost, 
 was now overlooked by the foe, as an unimportant 
 detail, and consequently, many of these poor, 
 wotmded and worn-out soldiers of the Allies could 
 be found scattered here and there over the numer- 
 ous fields that formed the terrain of the recent 
 early battles of the war. Some of these severely 
 maimed and helpless men had managed to hide 
 themselves away in some dug-out in the trenches, 
 or in trees; others, more fortunate than the first, 
 took shelter in abandoned farm houses, or empty 
 stables ; but many of them, alas ! succeeded in get- 
 ting to these places of refuge only to find there an 
 agonizing and a lonely deathbed. 
 
 To add to the sense of utter abandonment of 
 these ill-fated victims of war, the few peasants 
 that had had the courage to remain on their farms, 
 would not leave their shelters, to go to the aid of 
 these suffering men. It often happened, how- 
 ever, that the children of the neighborhood of 
 these lonely battlefields would sally forth to 
 reconnoiter, or to play, and be startled at finding 
 a festering corpse of an unknown man lying in 
 
56 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 a ditch or under some brushwood where death had 
 overtaken him. Whereupon, these frightened 
 children would hasten home and inform their 
 parents of their discovery. When night came, the 
 latter would go out and bury these dead; and 
 their graves would be afterward strewn with 
 flowers by the hands of these same tender-hearted 
 children who had been the first to find their occu- 
 pants. As I have said before, most of the farmers 
 were afraid to go out to look for these men 
 either living or dead, and I am sorry to state 
 that, often, when they would hear some one knock- 
 ing at their farm doors, late in the evening, the 
 occupants of these homes would refuse to open. 
 It thus happened that many a forlorn combatant 
 deemed it useless for him to call upon the farmer 
 for help; and even the children were sometimes 
 afraid of receiving him because of the numerous 
 detached troops that still remained in the small 
 neighboring villages, where these young ones saw 
 every day some new proclamation against the 
 harboring of English or French troops there- 
 abouts. We can infer from this how unhappy 
 was the fate of these unfortunate men, whose 
 rigorous lot was increased by the fear of the 
 selfish farmers whose hearts had become steeled 
 by the reiterated threats of their foes. 
 
THE FIRST REFUGEE 57 
 
 It is hard for Americans, who have been spared 
 these horrors in their own home, to reaHze the 
 saddening effects caused by the view of these 
 humble graves upon the tender souls of the young 
 children, who, sometimes, found as many as five 
 or six of these dead bodies daily, in their wander- 
 ings over the fields; and you can consider your- 
 self lucky, you who view those graves to-day, in 
 the bright sun of peace, that you did not, like 
 these men, who were flesh and blood like your- 
 selves, die abandoned and unknown after many 
 weary days of horrible anguish and suffering. 
 
 "Madame" went on to say that upon being in- 
 formed of these sad cases, the Princess de Croy 
 and her brother, a bachelor, both of whom were 
 at that time living in their chateau, on the French 
 border, were greatly moved by the sorrowful 
 plight of these war victims. These two chari- 
 table persons were very fond of outdoor sports. It 
 was during one of their many trips across country 
 that they either met with the children of that 
 neighborhood, who told them of the soldiers' 
 plight, or they saw it for themselves. They im- 
 mediately sent word to the Countess of Bellignies, 
 a friend of theirs, who lived in the town of that 
 name situated on the French border. 
 
 I have no knowledge of what passed between 
 
58 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 these persons, but the outcome of their meeting 
 was, that they wrote to Mile. Thuilliez to come 
 to their home and decide what was best to be 
 done to aid these men. As I have stated before, 
 Mademoiselle Thuilliez was a French teacher 
 from Lille. I may add that she was a very brave 
 and energetic woman, calm and self-possessed. 
 She immediately determined to go to these places 
 alone, to see what assistance could be rendered. 
 
 This lady personally told me how she went for 
 the first time to one of these small villages, just 
 above Charleroi. How she inquired of the farm- 
 ers there, whether they knew of any refugee sol- 
 diers; but these men refused to talk to her about 
 them. She then determined upon searching for 
 them all alone. She waited for nightfall, then, 
 accompanied by some of the children of the local- 
 ity, she made her way to an abandoned battlefield. 
 Here, there was no immediate danger to her per- 
 son, because the Germans were then too much 
 occupied and excited in their fighting elsewhere 
 to give any close attention to these out-of-the-way 
 places. The very ground they had struggled over 
 was still wet with the blood of the wounded and 
 dying, and encumbered also by all the debris of 
 war. All this made it extremely difficult for a 
 frail young woman like her, and for the tender 
 
THE FIRST REFUGEE 59 
 
 young children with her, to tread their way in 
 safety through the gruesome scenes of the com- 
 bat of three weeks ago. 
 
 On Mademoiselle Thuilliez' first visit to these 
 desolate fields, she failed to find any of the un- 
 fortunate soldiers; but on the second night that 
 she courageously ventured there she saw a dark 
 object lying half -buried in the slimy mud of one 
 of the abandoned trenches. On closer examina- 
 tion it turned out to be that of an exhausted sol- 
 dier in a dying condition. 
 
 Aided by the children. Mademoiselle Thuilliez 
 managed to carry the suffering man to the humble 
 cabin of some poor frightened miners. 
 
 After which she sent a messenger to the Princess 
 de Croy, who, the very next day, came in person 
 to see the exhausted man. The latter was an 
 English soldier. Upon seeing this charitable lady, 
 he told her that many of his comrades were, like 
 himself, lying wounded or dying in the trenches 
 around about where she had found him. 
 
 After having found many of these disabled 
 soldiers in the neglected battlefields of this locality, 
 the Princess de Croy, dreading to leave them in 
 the villages, at the mercy of the selfish and indif- 
 ferent farmers, had them removed to her own 
 dwelling place; but she was unable to keep them 
 
6o WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 there for any length of time, through fear of 
 their being discovered by the Germans. She im- 
 mediately sought aid from the Countess de Belle- 
 ville, who was well acquainted with a Monsieur 
 Capiau, a civil engineer of the City of Mons. The 
 Princess determined upon asking him, in the name 
 of humanity, to help her take care of these suffer- 
 ing men, and to treat them as though they were 
 patients. But through fear of their being recog- 
 nized by the Germans, she also requested a certain 
 Monsieur Libies of Mons, a lawyer, to furnish 
 them with bogus cards of identity bearing as- 
 sumed names of Belgian citizens. Meanwhile, the 
 Princess de Croy, in the same manner as Miss 
 Thuilliez, had discovered several groups of these 
 wounded or exhausted soldiers at Wiheries, a 
 small village in the neighborhood of Mons. She, 
 together with the Countess de Belleville, also 
 asked a pharmacist of Paturage, by the name of 
 George Derveau, to assist them in their under- 
 taking. 
 
 After having come to a decision as to what was 
 best to be done, they set to work, and succeeded in 
 gathering together divers groups of refugee- 
 soldiers whom by degrees they conducted to the 
 home of Miss Cavell, in the "Rue de la Culture," 
 at Ixelles, which place served as the central point 
 
THE FIRST REFUGEE 6i 
 
 of their reunion. These disabled and war-worn 
 men were brought to our place through the fol- 
 lowing intermediaries : The men were first led 
 by Miss Thuilliez to the Princess of Croy's 
 chateau in Bellignies, France; they were then 
 taken to the house of a civil engineer named 
 Capiau, by Monsieur Derveau, in whose house 
 the fugitives obtained their bogus cards of iden- 
 tity. They were afterward conducted by various 
 individuals of Mons, among whom were Madame 
 Saduere-Tellier, Jeanne Dubuison, and others 
 whose names have escaped my memory. 
 
 By reason of the great danger of their being 
 discovered in the small dwellings of these per- 
 sons, the Princess de Croy, who was personally 
 well acquainted with Miss Cavell, and had 
 through the medium of Monsieur Bancq in- 
 formed Madame of these undertakings, agreed 
 with the latter to have the needy men brought to 
 her place. This Mr. Bancq and a Mr. Severin 
 had previously consented to receive these wounded 
 fugitives in their own homes in Brussels, until 
 Miss Cavell could find room for them in her 
 "clinique." There was also a Mme. Ada Bodart, 
 of Brussels, who had in the same way given 
 refuge to some of these unfortunates, whom she, 
 
62 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 too, kept with her until Madame Cavell was ready 
 to receive them. 
 
 These groups of tired and disabled soldiers 
 soon began to arrive at our ''clinique" in the ''rue 
 de la Culture," all brought there by Mile. Thuil- 
 liez. After they had received proper treatment 
 from us and when they had sufficiently recovered 
 from their wounds, or their fatigue, they were 
 sent away to a place of safety in the direction of 
 Holland. Upon leaving Miss Cavell's home, these 
 men were placed in the charge of the Belgian 
 guide, Gilles. This trusty man managed to con- 
 duct his charges as far as Antwerp, where another 
 guide would relieve him of his responsibility and 
 lead them to Turnhout, a village on the Dutch 
 frontier, over which by means of certain men and 
 women, to whom they were directed, and through 
 the payment of the sum of one hundred francs, 
 they were safely led into Holland. They found no 
 difficulty in paying their way across the border, 
 since they had been plentifully furnished with 
 money for that purpose by the generosity of Miss 
 Cavell herself, and of Mr. Severin, of Brussels, 
 and many other brave and kind people. 
 
 Directly these fugitives got into Holland, they 
 were at liberty. Once there, many of them found 
 their way to England or to France, where those 
 
THE FIRST REFUGEE 63 
 
 among them that were not disabled, might again 
 take their places in their respective armies. 
 
 Such were the events that had happened during 
 the first stages of the war, leading to the advent 
 of the exhausted soldiers at our *'clinique," — all 
 which occurrences ''Madame" related to me in her 
 usual calm and dignified manner, as she took me 
 into her confidence. Everything she said con- 
 tributed towards showing me how strong this 
 astonishing organization for the saving of 
 refugees' lives really was; though I, myself, at 
 that time, could not fully comprehend it. 
 
 When Madame had told me all that she thought 
 important for me to know, she further showed 
 her trust in me by adding that she considered me 
 as her friend and partner in this undertaking, and 
 also cautioned me against speaking of it to the 
 other nurses. She then left me, and I went to 
 the small room to see to the nine men, all weak 
 and exhausted, that had been placed under our 
 care. These men, already mentioned above, 
 seemed to be in a pitiable state, indeed, and they 
 were far more depressed in mind than the two 
 English soldiers whom we had first received. 
 However, we had orders to do the best we could 
 to cheer them and to make them feel as comfort- 
 able and as happy as we possibly could. All this 
 
64 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 gave us much extra work, but we all did our best 
 to fulfill our duty in the cause of suffering 
 humanity, and also to please ''Madame." 
 
 What I have to relate now may at first glance 
 seem trivial, and gossipy, but it is necessary for 
 me to state it, as it led to serious consequences. 
 It is as follows : 
 
 When we had succeeded in restoring these poor 
 men to health, and had dressed them in clean 
 clothes, they appeared so much changed and at- 
 tractive that they could not fail to impress one 
 with their youthful, manly air. It happened that 
 one of our nurses, a young and pretty Russian 
 girl, by the name of Dora Betsis, who had 
 helped in the nursing of two of these young 
 English lads, suddenly seemed to grow very fond 
 of them, and they in their turn, showed a great 
 liking for her, to the extent of being jealous of 
 each other. They both manifested their affec- 
 tion for her by writing verses and other trivial 
 thoughts in her autograph album, and they even 
 signed their real names to these inscriptions. All 
 this seemed innocent enough, to us all, and in all 
 probability it was so intended by these young 
 men; but it was a very dangerous thing to do, in 
 these war times, and we eventually had to pay a 
 terribly dear price for this most imprudent act. 
 
THE FIRST REFUGEE 65 
 
 However, nothing immediately happened, for 
 when they were well enough to go away from us, 
 they, like those that had gone before, were, one 
 cold, frosty morning, at four o'clock, led to an- 
 other place of safety by "Madame," and Jose, and 
 her good dog, Jack. 
 
 The nights had been growing gradually colder 
 during these several trips, and Miss Cavell ap- 
 peared more thin and frail after each of them, 
 and it seemed to me that for a woman of her 
 age, these chilly morning trips did not benefit her 
 health in any degree. But who can tell what was 
 passing in her mind, and the extent of suffering 
 this proud and charitable soul was undergoing 
 in her sad and painful solitary struggles amidst 
 these scenes and people that she had loved so 
 well? 
 
 When, at six o'clock, she returned from her 
 trip, she quietly took her place at the head of our 
 breakfast table, where the meals were beginning 
 to diminish in quantity as well as in quality. 
 But, I am sorry to say, our young nurses didn't 
 seem to realize the amount of fatigue Madame 
 had to endure in these early morning tramps with 
 the recuperated men; but one could notice the ill 
 effects of them, by the increased depths of the 
 lines about her mouth, when, with a clear search- 
 
66 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 ing gaze she glanced around at the assembled 
 nurses to convince herself that they were all 
 right. 
 
 From day to day, many more men came to our 
 place, conducted there by Mile. Thuilliez, most 
 of the time, though some of them were brought 
 there by Gilles, the trusty guide. We continued 
 to care for these unfortunate soldiers in spite 
 of the fact that more proclamations had, in the 
 meantime, been made to the Belgian people, for- 
 bidding them to either help or harbor any French 
 or English fugitive soldiers. We thought that 
 it was our duty as hospital nurses to care for 
 these patients, and we were also impelled to do 
 so through our love for our mistress, whom we 
 wished to help in her highly humanitarian and 
 charitable work, without troubling her with any 
 considerations of money matters. 
 
 At times, however, Madame, seeing our fatigue, 
 would advise us to go for a walk in the fresh air, 
 and she would sometimes send me with a letter to 
 Mr. Severin's house, a trip which gave me a 
 greatly needed change. 
 
 The reader must not imagine that all these 
 comings and goings could go on unobserved by 
 everybody. It was not long before the Com- 
 mittee of our "Clinique" began to suspect that 
 
THE FIRST REFUGEE (^J 
 
 something unusual was occurring in the "rue de 
 la Culture." But as Mme. DePage, one of its 
 members, who was personally interested in Miss 
 Cavell's enterprise, seemed to have a share in the 
 wounded refugee- work, they did not dare to in- 
 terfere with it, though, as I later learned, they 
 highly disapproved of it all. 
 
 During all this period, the buildings of the 
 New Clinique went on under construction, and 
 Madame went still, from time to time, to view 
 their progress. She had so longed for their com- 
 pletion, and for days and days she had spoken 
 of them to us, telling us how much cleaner and 
 brighter the new home would be and how much 
 easier our tasks would be. 
 
 This was towards the end of December, 1914. 
 By this time, our friends in the Metropohs were 
 becoming more and more excited, and indignant 
 against the tyrannical invaders. On every occa- 
 sion the City of Brussels was forced to pay great 
 sums of money on account of these manifesta- 
 tions of ill will on the part of its citizens against 
 the foe. These fines only served to increase our 
 hatred for our hard task-masters. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 CHRISTMAS I914 
 
 About Christmas time of this same year we 
 had received several more men in our "clinique." 
 Among these was a certain EngHsh commanding 
 officer. I had never seen such a handsome, noble 
 looking face as his, among all those men who 
 had come to our home. He soon became a great 
 favorite with everybody, and was the ideal of 
 the nurses, and he also seemed to have become 
 the right hand of Miss Cavell, in directing the 
 other men, and in organizing parties and enter- 
 tainments for the Christmas holidays. He took 
 much interest in these events, and personally 
 assisted in their preparation. It was he who gave 
 Madame the idea of asking some homeless chil- 
 dren of the city schools to share our Christmas 
 dinner. This she did, and when the festive day 
 arrived we had as many as fifty children in our 
 home, and all of them with hungry stomachs and 
 big shining eyes, looking covetously at the many 
 
 68 
 
CHRISTMAS 1914 69 
 
 good things spread before them on our tables. It 
 was also this handsome, gallant officer who opened 
 the dining room doors to these expectant young 
 ones and conducted them each to their chairs, 
 giving them all a hearty welcome. He then took 
 his place at the head of the table, next to that 
 of Madame. When the children and the rest of 
 those who were present had done justice to our 
 hostess' hospitality, this English officer, whose 
 command of our language was not very great, 
 made us a short speech with a very marked British 
 accent. He told us how solemn and beautiful the 
 occasion seemed to him, and his brother soldiers, 
 united as they were under our friendly and hos- 
 pitable roof; and how grateful they were to us. 
 We could not refrain from a thrill of emotion 
 when, with overflowing souls the Englishmen 
 with one breath loudly exclaimed, "God bless you 
 all!" 
 
 Everything went off splendidly, and the festiv- 
 ities ended by everybody joining in singing the 
 British National Hymn of *'God Save the King!" 
 
 At midnight the children returned to their 
 homes, with their stomachs well filled, and with 
 happy and grateful hearts. Thus was the ordinary 
 routine and drudgery of our lives relieved by a 
 few happy moments like these. 
 
70 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 These pleasant moments would soon be sad- 
 dened, however, by the sudden departure of our 
 newly acquired guests. So it happened in the 
 case of our good-hearted British officer, for, on 
 the very next day, at four o'clock in the morn- 
 ing, he, like the others had done before him, left 
 our hospitable ''clinique" under the guidance of 
 Miss Cavell and Jose. I never heard of him since, 
 nor did I ever even know his name, and though 
 he had promised to write to us, his longed-for 
 post card, which was to tell us of his safe arrival 
 in Holland, never reached us. 
 
 Life in Brussels was becoming more and more 
 miserable, through the vexatious measures of the 
 Germans, who showed us much hatred, and did 
 everything they possibly could to make our Bel- 
 gian people feel oppressed and unhappy. 
 
 During the Christmas and the New Year's 
 holidays, too, when every one usually tries to be 
 happier than at another time, and when their 
 hearts are filled with hope for the future, this 
 ill-treatment seemed all the more difficult to bear. 
 Some of these acts were preposterous ! When 
 we think that merely because a German invader 
 had heard an innocent child sing a Belgian folk- 
 song they tyrannically imposed a fine of 50,000 
 francs upon the city of Brussels. Added to this 
 
CHRISTMAS 1914 71 
 
 affront, from the first of January, 191 5, it was 
 forbidden for the citizens of that city to venture 
 out of their homes after seven o'clock in the 
 evening. Furthermore, all the gas mains and the 
 electric lighting plants were cut off, so that the 
 poor inhabitants were left without light other 
 than that of candles; and to make matters still 
 worse, the principal reservoirs of the Belgian 
 metropolis had been emptied of their contents, 
 thus leaving the people without good drinking 
 water. 
 
 Everything seemed so sad, but in spite of it 
 all, the staunch Belgian people were still highly 
 optimistic, and continued to labor under the belief 
 that their troubles and vexations woujld soon 
 cease. Notwithstanding their predicament, how- 
 ever, the good people managed to find a secluded 
 place in which to talk about their country's woes. 
 I recollect, that when I went to visit my friends 
 and my family, on the occasion of the New Year, 
 I discovered them hidden in their cellars, under 
 the light of a tallow candle, gathered around a 
 table upon which were a few bottles of Belgian 
 beer. Here they continued to keep the flame of 
 the old Flemish spirit brightly burning. These 
 good-natured and kind-hearted people had re- 
 mained unchanged through it all! Though they 
 
y2 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 were very sad at their unhappy fate, they still 
 looked forward to better times! Galled and op- 
 pressed as these people were, they had to dissimu- 
 late their resentment, but notwithstanding the 
 fact that under their troubles they continued to 
 show a happy child-like smile on their face and 
 a kindly beam in their gentle blue eyes, the Ger- 
 man Governor knew full well that he had no 
 mere children to deal with in the Belgian people. 
 
 Of all the cities which have been severely pun- 
 ished by these Germans, I believe that Brussels 
 was the one that suffered the most. 
 
 On the third of this same month, things were 
 a little better, but we still remembered the un- 
 pleasant cold and dark days which we had gone 
 through. 
 
 Quite a number of English soldiers, many of 
 whom were unwounded, continued to come to our 
 place, and we busied ourselves as ever, in caring 
 for them and in mending their soiled clothes. We 
 endeavored in every way to cheer them and to 
 set them on their feet again. Our *'clinique" in 
 the "rue de la Culture" remained all this time quiet 
 and forgotten. The Germans up to this time 
 had not suspected that our little home was lodging 
 such great enemies. But this state of things 
 could not last like that forever. It happened, at 
 
CHRISTMAS 1914 73 
 
 times, that some of our young men, feeling the 
 need of fresh air, would imprudently venture out- 
 doors, where passers-by could see them seated 
 in arm chairs at the front door, enjoying the 
 early morning air and the bright sunshine. This 
 was an innocent enough act, on their part, but 
 it was fraught with much danger to us and to 
 themselves, for in so doing they ran great risk 
 of being recognized by the Germans, because 
 those English soldiers could not dissimulate the 
 hatred that showed in their eyes as they beheld 
 any straggling enemies' soldiers, which could not 
 fail to be noticed by the latter and arouse their 
 suspicion. Madame was not slow to perceive the 
 danger they incurred, and she decided to keep 
 these men more confined, to screen them from the 
 public gaze; and she would only permit them, in 
 fine weather, to go for a short walk, accompanied 
 by Jose. 
 
 Up to the end of January nothing of note had 
 happened. Miss Thuilliez came at regular in- 
 tervals, bringing men and news with her to our 
 *'clinique," where things were going on all right. 
 Madame had taken some extra help. She had 
 hired a woman and two girls, to aid us in the 
 kitchen and in the housework. 
 
 In the month of February several French sol- 
 
74 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 diers came to us, and we treated them with as 
 much care and attention as we had the others, and 
 soon nursed them back to heaUh, aided in this 
 by the fine weather and the cold bracing air. It 
 was not long before they began to show their 
 GalHc temperament by becoming restless and 
 venturesome. They took short walks in the 
 neighborhood, and as your French soldier, like 
 his Belgian brother, is very fond of a glass or 
 so of wine, it was not very long, either, before 
 they spied a snug little cafe in the rue de la 
 Culture, with the sign ''Chez Jules" over the door. 
 They did not fail to enter, you may be sure, and 
 indulge in their favorite beverage. Very soon 
 the English soldiers also got wind of it, and 
 would often accompany the Frenchmen, promis- 
 ing to behave themselves and not betray their 
 identity. Madame did not mistrust them, and per- 
 mitted them to go. But her suspicions and her 
 fear were aroused when one of these Englishmen 
 came home in an advanced state of intoxication. 
 You can easily imagine how shocked Madame felt 
 about it, and how imprudent and dangerous it 
 must have seemed to her! Moreover, she was 
 powerless to hinder it. She had the man con- 
 fined to the house; but, I, myself, saw this par- 
 ticular soldier, whom we had carefully hidden 
 
CHRISTMAS 1914 75 
 
 away from the peering eyes of strangers and 
 enemies, talking aloud and drinking wine in an 
 ordinary cafe. Who could tell whether some 
 silent agent of the enemy might not be seated 
 in such a place? If such a man were there he 
 could not fail to notice the difference between the 
 vivacious exclamations of the French soldiers 
 and the slow, drawling accent of his British com- 
 panions, with their broad smiles; and contrast 
 both of these with the Belgians around them. 
 With these doings, it was not long, you may be 
 sure, before the whole neighborhood knew that 
 Miss Cavell was harboring French and English 
 soldiers under her roof. 
 
 When the time came for these men to depart 
 for Holland, we were glad because we were com- 
 mencing to fear that they might bring trouble 
 upon us; and it actually happened, one or two 
 days afterward, while I was taking the air in one 
 of the streets near our "clinique," that I noticed 
 two German officers who seemed to look at me 
 very closely. This made me feel nervous, know- 
 ing as I did that our place was full of English 
 soldiers. 
 
 I began to keenly realize the danger we were 
 incurring in harboring them. Notwithstanding, I 
 endeavored to assure myself that there was 
 
y6 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 nothing to fear, that perhaps my imagination was 
 getting the better of me. 
 
 An important event, causing much sorrow to 
 us, happened in the month of March. From the 
 beginning of hostihties to the present time, the 
 Saint Gilles' Hospital had been occupied by our 
 own Belgian sick, and during that interval these 
 patients, as we have already said, had been treated 
 by many of our own nurses. But, as was always 
 the case with them, the German invaders requi- 
 sitioned the Brussels hospitals for their own sick 
 and wounded, and it was not long before all the 
 Belgian patients were transferred to the St. 
 Jean's Hospital in that city. It also followed 
 that all our nurses were, on account of this, 
 left without work, a thing which made them 
 very unhappy. In hard times like these, too, it 
 was very difficult, if not impossible, for them to 
 obtain another situation. Upon hearing of their 
 misfortune, Madame bade the nurses not to worry 
 about it, and moreover, promised to help them. 
 She allowed them to remain with us; this in- 
 creased the number of our personnel in our 
 already overcrowded house, and also had for 
 effect the rapid diminution in our food allowance. 
 
 During the same month, Madame Marie De- 
 Page left Belgium for America, to seek help for 
 
CHRISTMAS 1914 17 
 
 the wounded soldiers at La Panne and at Verdun. 
 She bid good-bye to Madame with tears stream- 
 ing down her cheeks. Did she already feel that 
 this was to be the last time that she would see 
 both her unhappy country and her most intimate 
 friend? 
 
 She left us all after saying farewell, and soon 
 sailed on one of the Belgian Sea boats. 
 
 Madame sent ten of the nurses that had lately 
 arrived, to France, with the intention of having 
 them help in taking care of the many wounded 
 on the *'Yser." She conducted these nurses in 
 person to Antwerp, where, in an humble farm 
 house, a room was in readiness for them. On 
 the following day she went with them as far as 
 the town of Turnhout. And here an incident 
 occurred which set forth in a beautiful light the 
 pious nature of this noble hearted and charitable 
 woman. When about to take leave of her charges 
 whom she loved so well, she reverently knelt 
 down on the muddy earth of Flanders and gave 
 them her parting blessing. 
 
 When, a day later, she returned to our 
 humble *'clinique" she seemed broken hearted. 
 She also appeared to worry because she had not 
 been able to find any food supplies to meet the 
 
78 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 wants of the lately increased number of inmates 
 of her household. 
 
 We nurses who had remained faithfully with 
 her now began to feel the evil effects of these 
 very hard times. We were greatly in need of 
 money, too, and of many of the necessaries of 
 daily life. We hardly dared, however, to tell 
 Madame of this, because we well knew that she 
 had enough troubles of her own, about which to 
 worry without adding to them by relating ours. 
 
 I thought that I had hit upon a plan to gain 
 money, I decided to give French lessons. With 
 this intention, one day, when I had two hours' 
 leave, I hastened to a book store to see if I could 
 find any one who would be desirous of learning 
 the language. Upon reaching the place, and 
 looking anxiously for notices with a list of names 
 of such as might want lessons, what was my 
 surprise to find that nobody in Brussels was rich 
 enough to afford to take French lessons ! I went 
 back home feeling sad and disappointed. The 
 thought had not occurred to me at that time, that 
 the Germans would not have allowed any one to 
 even speak French. 
 
 As we were young girls and were very much 
 occupied with our English soldiers, we had little 
 leisure to worry over such privations. We had 
 
CHRISTMAS 1914 79 
 
 recourse to the piano and to songs, both of which 
 came in use to keep up the good humor of our 
 guests. Much of our attention was also en- 
 grossed by applying ourselves to the learning of 
 English from them. 
 
 The kitchen servants became interested in 
 these men, and I may mention in passing, that 
 the cook's daughter, a young girl who had not 
 been very long with us, suddenly began a flirta- 
 tion with one of them. I well remember when we 
 warned Madame of it, how shocked and annoyed 
 she w^as at such behavior on the part of one of 
 her servants. 
 
 In the month of May, we received quite a 
 number of soldiers at a time, and among these 
 there was one who informed us that he was of 
 Polish origin. He became very ill while with 
 us, and Madame was often at his bedside. For 
 more than three weeks he remained with us and 
 we often saw him occupied in writing. 
 
 After Miss Cavell had conducted him to Gilles, 
 the guide and he went elsewhere, we found on 
 the floor of his room a German letter in which 
 this boy had written that Madame's house was 
 a good one, but that he could not do anything that 
 was required of him to do. 
 
 When we heard about this letter being found, 
 
8o WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 the thought suddenly occurred to us that we had 
 been harboring a spy in our home ! But through 
 the kind treatment of Madame he had evidently 
 changed his mind about betraying us. 
 
 I now felt certain enough that we were known 
 to our German enemies. I told Madame about 
 the letter, but she didn't seem to be much im- 
 pressed about it for, as yet, she had not fully 
 grasped its meaning. 
 
 A few days later she sent me, together with 
 one of the nurses, for a day's leave. We both 
 decided upon going to town to see the movies. 
 Our supply of money was very limited, so we 
 walked in hunger through the streets of Brussels, 
 where the animation was great. Several marked 
 changes had, however, taken place since my last 
 visit. The one that struck me the most was the 
 desolate condition in which the beautiful Palace 
 of Justice appeared to us. This handsome build- 
 ing was boarded up all around and German flags 
 were everywhere to be seen. 
 
 Another sight that caused the blood to freeze 
 in our young veins, was that of the many notices 
 with ^'Verboten" on them, pasted on the city 
 walls ; for we could not fail to see over a hundred 
 of them, warning the citizens against harboring 
 an English or French soldier under pain of death. 
 
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 8i 
 
82 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 Signs of oppression were to be seen every- 
 where, and many were the frightened faces that 
 I met in the lower part of Brussels, where I 
 learned that several persons, ignorant of having 
 done wrong, had been recently punished, only for 
 wearing a sprig of green holly on their dresses. 
 
 We went to the movies, where in a cheap place 
 we viewed an American film. It was very inter- 
 esting, indeed, and it made us forget for a while 
 the unhappy conditions of the outside world. It 
 was rather late, and far past the regulation hour 
 when we reached home. The night-nurse opened 
 the door, and bade us make no noise. "Madame 
 is already abed," the nurse said, "and it would be 
 best for us to go to our rooms without attract- 
 ing her attention." We decided to go in our 
 stocking feet, and taking off our shoes, we car- 
 ried them in our hands, as with rapidly beating 
 hearts we cautiously mounted the crooked stairs, 
 for we were ashamed to be late, and sorry to dis- 
 please Madame, who had placed much trust in us. 
 
 It was very dark on the stairs as we mounted, 
 and when we were about half way up I felt some- 
 thing touch me against the wall. Before I realized 
 what it could be, I heard Madame's voice saying, 
 "Put on your shoes, my children; I'm afraid you 
 will catch cold." In my fear and excitement, I 
 
CHRISTMAS 1914 83 
 
 let both my shoes drop on my feet, which hurt me 
 much, but I did not dare to cry out. We went 
 to our room feehng sheepish and tired. 
 
 The next day we were called quite early to 
 Madame's office, where, after asking us to ex- 
 plain ourselves. Miss Cavell mildly admonished 
 us, and warned us in future to be more prudent 
 and to take care of our reputations. At first we 
 did not attach much importance to these words, 
 but, later on, we fully realized what they meant. 
 
 One evening in the month of June, shortly after 
 supper, I went out for a walk in the streets im- 
 mediately around our home. Madame was stand- 
 ing in the middle of a field before the ''clinique," 
 where some poor people had for several days been 
 busy planting potatoes. Madame went very often 
 to look at them, and gave them some kind words 
 of encouragement. Pauline was also standing 
 by her, w^hile Jack, the dog, was lazily lying on 
 the grass. 
 
 While I was walking in the ''rue de Berken- 
 dael," a tall, handsome man asked me where the 
 ''Edith Cavell Clinique" was situated. The man's 
 accent was of the most beautiful French that one 
 could possibly hear, and his manners were those 
 of a well-educated well-bred gentleman. He ex- 
 plained to me that he was a French soldier, and 
 
84 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 that he was looking for a hiding place for himself 
 and a friend of his. I do not know what urged 
 me to do so, but I gave him the wrong direction, 
 and continued my walk; but while I was turning 
 around a corner, I chanced to look backward. 
 There was the French officer following me. Upon 
 noticing that I was aware of his movements, he 
 crossed to the other side of the street, where a 
 man in a gray summer coat was standing. He 
 spoke a few words to this individual, and then 
 pointed with his finger to where Miss Cavell was 
 standing in the very same street where the potato 
 field was located. There was something ill-boding 
 in this man's look and gesture, and, in my heart, I 
 felt that all was not right. 
 
 Not knowing what else to do, I instantly ran 
 toward Madame, feeling very nervous, and all 
 in a tremble. I told her that a man whom she 
 herself could see, was asking after her and the 
 place where her *'clinique" was. I added, that I 
 was certain that he was a spy. She only laughed 
 at this, and said that I always saw spies every- 
 where, and turning away she, together with 
 Pauline, walked toward the entrance door. 
 
 In the meantime, the two men also approached 
 the doorway, and I noticed that Madame let them 
 enter the house. I was much worried at it all. 
 
CHRISTMAS 1914 85 
 
 Even Jack, the dog, raised up his head and ap- 
 peared to be restless. We both approached the 
 house together when the dog began to be very 
 much upset. A few minutes later I was called to 
 Madame's office, where she presented me to 
 them both; the one as a Monsieur Gaston Quin, 
 and the other as a Mr. X, an Englishman. She 
 asked me to look after Mr. Quin, and to put him 
 in a room where there was a French soldier who 
 had just arrived the night before, and had been 
 comfortably installed. The other man, whom we 
 called Mr. X, for lack of a better name, was 
 placed in a room where several English soldiers 
 were talking and smoking together. 
 
 Monsieur Quin was, as we have said, a typical 
 Frenchman with perfect manners, and beautiful 
 language. He was tall and very slender, his 
 visage was adorned with what we call a Bourbon 
 nose and his blue eyes were keen, yet soft and 
 kindly in expression. It was not very long before 
 all the nurses fell head-over-heels in love with 
 him, but as they were very closely watched by 
 Madame, they did not dare to show any outward 
 signs of their infatuation. 
 
 The next day, the Frenchman told us that he 
 did not feel well enough to leave for Holland. 
 So Madame decided to keep him under our care 
 
86 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 for a week or two more. But early the next morn- 
 ing she conducted his friend and the others to 
 Gilles, the guide, as was her wont. So that 
 Monsieur Gaston Quin remained with us, and 
 became the charge of all the women. Perceiving 
 that he could obtain anything he desired of them, 
 he requested them to accompany him for a walk 
 when they were off duty. He seemed very friendly 
 to little Pauline Randell; her broken French and 
 pretty face made a strong impression upon him. 
 He asked her also to go out walking with him; 
 which she did, I believe, but it was only once. 
 
 Leonie, the cook's daughter, was in love with 
 him, too, and even Jose, who had been married 
 for some time, introduced Quin to his humble 
 family. When Jose's first child was born about 
 this time, its mother gave it the name of "Gas- 
 ton," Monsieur Quin's first name. This gentle- 
 man became very friendly with the poor people 
 who worked in the fields over the way, and it 
 seemed to me that he had many conversations 
 together with them that must have been of interest 
 to himself. He seemed hail-fellow-well-met with 
 every one. But as I detested him from the very 
 beginning, and was much prejudiced against him, 
 I could not share in the general good will and 
 liking that was shown to him. I attributed my 
 
CHRISTMAS 1914 87 
 
 dislike for him to be the effect of an excited 
 imagination. 
 
 The guide Gilles came in a few days after and 
 appeared to be extremely nervous. He asked to 
 see Madame, at once, and while he was waiting 
 for her, he was seen by Monsieur Quin, who eyed 
 him in a very peculiar manner. Gilles informed 
 Madame that Mr. X, the so-called Englishman, 
 had suddenly disappeared from the group of men 
 he had lately conducted to Antwerp, and he as- 
 sured her that he suspected the man was a spy. 
 
 Gilles departed, but not before he warned us 
 to keep a good watch on the street, and also 
 upon every one who came into our house. 
 
 That very evening we saw three strangers talk- 
 ing to the people in the opposite field. Leonie, the 
 maid, was out with Mr. Quin for the whole after- 
 noon, and a German officer, in his brilliant uni- 
 form, came to our ''clinique" to ask for a vacant 
 room for his son, who was very ill. All these 
 incidents seemed rather suspicious to me, and the 
 sudden entrance of the above mentioned officer 
 caused Pauline and myself to tremble with fear, 
 as it did all the other nurses. But after having 
 talked with Madame, towards whom he behaved 
 very politely, we noticed that He left the house 
 without giving any signs of wishing to inspect 
 
88 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 the premises; moreover, he did not even speak to 
 any of us. 
 
 The next day Madame again called me to her 
 office, handed me a letter for Monsieur Bancq, 
 but without any address upon the envelope, and 
 bade me deliver it, remarking that it was very 
 important. We had done the same thing several 
 times before, without realizing what a dangerous 
 thing it was to do. Even now, I thought nothing 
 of it, and readily agreed to do it again. 
 
 While on my way to deliver it, I was walking 
 along the Chaussee de Waterloo, where I met the 
 ubiquitous Monsieur Quin. He had a cane in 
 his hand, which he swiftly twirled around his 
 fingers as he advanced. Approaching me, he 
 asked me if he could have the pleasure of treat- 
 ing me to a glass of wine in a near-by cafe. This 
 I politely refused, and gave him as an excuse that 
 I had not the time to accept his invitation. I 
 abruptly left him, and continued on my way with- 
 out giving him any further thought. What was 
 my surprise, when at the Porte de Schaerbeek, I 
 saw him again, going in the direction of Mon- 
 sieur Bancq's house. This time he did not look 
 at me, but suddenly disappeared into one of the 
 side streets, where there was a young girl await- 
 ing him. 
 
CHRISTMAS 1914 89 
 
 I began to feel uneasy, and was wondering if 
 something evil was going to happen. A few 
 blocks further on, as I happened to turn around, 
 I noticed that a man had been following me 
 since my last meeting with Mr. Quin. At first, I 
 thought that this new individual was one of our 
 Belgian boys, who had taken a fancy to me and, 
 as is the Belgian custom, wished to accompany 
 me on my way. Wishing to verify this, I stopped 
 at a store window and pretended to be gazing at 
 something inside. The man came up toward me, 
 passed by without giving me a look, and also 
 disappeared in one of the by-streets. When I had 
 nearly reached Mr. Banrq's house, I again noticed 
 this same individual talking with a German 
 officer. I was afraid to go into Mr. Bancq's 
 house, and, not to create suspicion, I decided in- 
 stead to go to that of one of my friends. While 
 on my way there I was followed all the time by 
 this same fellow. 
 
 At my friend's home, everything was in a 
 state of commotion. Just three hours before I 
 came, the husband and the father had been ar- 
 rested by the German police. It had become known 
 to the latter that these two members of my friend's 
 family had given shelter to some French soldiers. 
 
 Disappointed and anxious, I returned to our 
 
90 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 "clinique" in a melancholy mood. I did not even 
 dare to mention any of these facts to Madame; 
 I felt myself obliged to inform her that I 
 had not delivered the letter to Mr. Bancq. Upon 
 reaching the "clinique" I perceived Mr. Bancq 
 himself, just as he was leaving our doorway. I 
 was a little relieved at this, for I thought that 
 possibly Madame would not ask me about the 
 letter. I waited until the next day to return the 
 letter, with the excuse that Mr. Bancq was not 
 in and I did not dare to trust it with any one else. 
 I do not recollect whether she paid much atten- 
 tion to me, for at that moment she seemed greatly 
 preoccupied. 
 
 The following day the weather was calm and 
 beautiful. Madame went, as usual, to visit the 
 New Clinique, which by this time was nearing 
 completion. It was always a source of great pleas- 
 ure to her to watch its daily progress. In the 
 afternoon of the same day she went to the people 
 across the way, and distributed apples among them 
 and helped them along in their work as much as 
 she was able. 
 
 Our house was, at this time, again filled with 
 men-, and Mr. Quin was still the same much- 
 admired hero as ever. I had noticed him, several 
 times, in the company of Leonie, who seemed to 
 
CHRISTMAS 1914 91 
 
 be very much in love with him. When, under 
 the guidance of Madame and Jose, he finally left 
 us for Holland, he seemed so sincerely sad at 
 parting, that I actually felt sorry at having 
 thought him so dishonest. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 SUSPECTED 
 
 On the tenth of June, Madame called us to- 
 gether, to inform us that in the following month 
 we were to move into our New Clinique. 
 
 In the preparation for this event we were 
 obliged to commence the furniture cleaning, and 
 as Madame had no money to hire outside help, we 
 had to do the work ourselves. This task gave the 
 Englishmen, the Frenchmen and ourselves lots of 
 sport working happily together. 
 
 It happened, one afternoon, that Pauline came 
 in looking white as a sheet, and informed us, in 
 a low voice, that two German soldiers were in 
 Miss Cavell's office. We were quite upset at this, 
 and we scarcely knew what to do about it. I 
 decided to go to the parlor where I might perhaps 
 find out something from hearing the conversa- 
 tion. Just as I reached the room, however, the 
 two Germans left the house without even so much 
 as looking around the place. Following them with 
 
 92 
 
SUSPECTED 93 
 
 my eyes, I saw them on the corner of the street 
 talking to some of the people in the opposite 
 field. I suddenly had a feeling that we were be- 
 trayed — that everywhere spying eyes were lurking, 
 and that the men whom we had so carefully con- 
 cealed were now menaced with serious danger. 
 
 At this juncture, Madame came out of her 
 office, looking very pale. Instantly I ran up to 
 her and asked her if all was well. With a wan 
 expression upon her face, Miss Cavell told me 
 that the two German soldiers had brought a letter 
 from the German commander, in which it was 
 stated that on May 7th, 191 5, Madame de Page 
 had gone down with the 'Tusitania." That was 
 all it said, nor had Miss Cavell anything to say re- 
 garding my fears and suspicions. 
 
 At this moment Gilles, the guide, came in, and 
 I imparted to him the news which I had regard- 
 ing the two German soldiers' visit. He burst out 
 into a forced laugh, and told me in his expressive 
 Flemish language, that he thought we really were 
 in danger — that Madame would tell us nothing 
 about it, through fear of causing us any anxiety. 
 Such was her greatness of character that 
 throughout all those days of trial and care, she 
 had kept her own sorrow and troubles to herself. 
 It remained for the sudden fatal news of the 
 
94 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 tragic death of Madame de Page to tear away the 
 mask of stoic indifference from that heroically 
 determined face. It was with a sad voice and 
 tearful eyes that she related the sad news to us. 
 
 We were all of us very unhappy about this sad 
 event; for we had known the good-hearted lady 
 very well. She had shown so much interest in our 
 work, and now, without her to interest herself 
 in us, we felt that we would be left all alone to 
 incur the expenses of our undertaking, because 
 all the other members of the committee were 
 too much engrossed in their own affairs, or were, 
 perhaps, too much annoyed by the Germans, to be 
 of much help to us. 
 
 We began to be less gay, now, and we even did 
 not dare to talk too loudly. We were also sad- 
 dened by the war news, which reached us from 
 time to time. We could hear the noise of ex- 
 ploding shells far away on the Yser River in 
 Flanders. That was all the outside news we 
 got, because nothing important was allowed to 
 be published. But, we well knew that within a 
 hundred feet from us, observant eyes were watch- 
 ing us, and quick ears were listening. We fully 
 realized this; but, strange as it may seem, we 
 dared not tell it to each other. To increase our 
 plight, the food was becoming more and more 
 
f^vmt^n HATvn 
 
 12 Vovcmbre l«l» 
 
 LA LIBRE iELGID'' 
 
 p» 
 
 First Page of Last Issues of the Famous 
 Forbidden Paper 
 
SUSPECTED 95 
 
 scarce; meat and eggs were unobtainable, and we 
 were reduced to the necessity of subsisting only 
 upon bread and salads. 
 
 We went on, however, cleaning our furniture 
 and preparing everything for moving day, con- 
 stantly dreaming of our future New Clinique. 
 This week, too, as was not very often the case, 
 we were all alone, for there were no English or 
 French soldiers with us to lend us a helping hand. 
 
 Mademoiselle Thuilliez had not yet returned, 
 and Gilles was out with some other men that he 
 was probably conducting to Antwerp. All that 
 week, danger seemed to be lurking around every 
 nook and corner of our dwelling; but, like 
 thoughtless children, we too easily forgot our 
 fears and sorrows. 
 
 On the twentieth of June, about ten o'clock in 
 the morning, Madame received a visit from two 
 men who spoke to her in English. They asked 
 to see the house, stating that they wanted to rent 
 the place after we had moved out. This sounded 
 plausible enough to us, but I saw Madame's face 
 become as pale as a sheet, as she allowed the 
 strangers to enter. When they were mounting 
 the stairs. Sister Wilkins noticed that one of the 
 men wore army shoes, and had eyeglasses of Ger- 
 
96 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 man manufacture. She called little Mania 
 Waschausky's, a young nurse, attention to it, 
 and the latter recognized the fact. Both of the 
 women became uneasy, when showing the men 
 one of the rooms, where many English mag- 
 azines and a few numbers of the "Libre Bel- 
 gique" newspaper were carelessly left lying 
 around. But the two men seemed not to notice 
 all these details; and although they went through 
 all the rooms, and looked casually at every corner 
 of the house, yet they showed no desire of making 
 a special inspection of the cupboards and ward- 
 robes. When we reached the bathrooms they ex- 
 amined the tanks. Madame was standing at the 
 entrance of the room. Sister Wilkins and I were 
 in one corner. Opposite the bath tub was a 
 mirror and in that mirror I could plainly see the 
 reflection of an English cap, which had carelessly 
 been thrown into one corner of the room. At 
 the sight of this object the blood seemed suddenly 
 to stop in my veins — the room to swim round and 
 round in my head. But no one noticed what I 
 saw, and the two men soon left the room, en- 
 gaged in deep conversation. Had they also 
 noticed the cap? Who could tell? 
 
 After they had gone, Madame appeared rest- 
 
SUSPECTED 97 
 
 less, and for the first time I noticed how ex- 
 tremely thin she looked. I questioned her about 
 these visitors, but she only said that they had 
 been sent to her by her own landlord. That was 
 all I could find out about them. 
 
 I did not dare to mention anything to her con- 
 cerning the state of her health, or her sorrows. 
 But remarking the extreme pallor of her cheeks, I 
 ventured to ask her if I could help. She merely 
 said, ''You are a good girl. I am all right. Go 
 back to your work, now, because, in a few days, 
 we shall be able to move into our new home." 
 
 In spite of her calmness, we were all of us 
 very much puzzled about the visit of these two 
 men ; but as we were busy about our house-moving 
 and had plenty of work to think of, we soon for- 
 got them. 
 
 On the 7th of July we received nine soldiers, all 
 of whom were English. They had come in the 
 night time and, as always, we gave them food 
 and clothing. We warned them to keep quiet 
 and not to go outdoors. So that, most of the 
 time, they were assembled in one of our large 
 rooms situated just behind Madame's office. This 
 room was in house No. 149, and it had a door 
 which led out to a small garden. It was also con- 
 

 
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100 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 nected by a basement passageway, with houses 
 No. 147, No. 145 and No. 143. 
 
 On the afternoon of the ninth of the same 
 month, we were occupied in house No. 147, from 
 which place it was not very easy to see what might 
 be happening in No. 149. We were all talking 
 together, at the time, but were suddenly dis- 
 turbed in the middle of our conversation by the 
 entrance of Pauline, who was making signs to 
 us with her fingers at her lips, for us to be silent 
 as, trembling with fear, she told us in a low tone 
 that two Germans were in Miss Cavell's office, and 
 that two others were outside the entrance door. 
 In a second we saw the danger that the English- 
 men were in, and we were ready to give our lives 
 to help those men in that room behind the office 
 in which the German police were making an in- 
 spection. 
 
 We were, in all, five girls with Sister Wilkins. 
 Three of us went through the basement to the 
 room where the men were in such great danger. 
 The other two girls went out into the street, to 
 talk with the two Germans outside. Only one 
 girl remained in Number 145. 
 
 When we came to the room, the English sol- 
 diers were engaged in reading and talking. 
 Sister Wilkins, who was with the three girls, put 
 
SUSPECTED loi 
 
 her finger to her lips to enjoin silence, and 
 motioned for them to follow her without delay. 
 The men saw by the expression of our faces that 
 something unusual had happened, and, quicker 
 than you can imagine it, they hastened after us 
 into the basement. We opened the little door that 
 led to the small garden, through which we helped 
 the unfortunate men to make their escape. Once 
 in the garden, they could easily jump over the 
 stone wall and get into an empty house on the 
 other side of it, that did not belong to us. The 
 men were not slow to understand us, and before 
 I could realize what was happening, they were 
 gone. 
 
 For the moment, the danger was past, but who 
 could tell what would happen next? What could 
 the men do without Jose or Gilles for a guide? 
 How could they get along without a knowledge 
 of French in a country in the hands of the 
 enemy ? 
 
 These thoughts flashed upon us like lightning, 
 and Sister Wilkins went to Jose to ask him to 
 roam about the streets to see if there was any 
 possibility of doing something for the men in the 
 vacant house. 
 
 Meanwhile, Miss Waschausky, Paula Van 
 Bockstaele and I gathered together the different 
 
102 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 magazines, and were intending to put them under 
 the bathtub. While we were carrying these 
 precious objects in our arms, we were suddenly 
 caught in the grasp of strong arms, and were 
 told in a severe tone that we had forbidden objects 
 in our possession. Trembling with fear, not so 
 much for ourselves as for the nine men in the 
 next house, we were at a loss what to do, so we 
 burst into tears. 
 
 Madame was detained in her office by the two 
 Germans, while the other two took us in charge — 
 making us carry all the books and papers we had 
 in our arms, they conducted us to the class-room, 
 where they began to make an inspection of them. 
 They had not been long making their examina- 
 tion of these periodicals which we had wished to 
 conceal when they were interrupted by the en- 
 trance of one of the two men outside with a 
 message in German. I began to realize that 
 something had to be done by me, if I wished to 
 discover something concerning these men. To 
 effect this, I managed to get a step or two nearer 
 them. You can imagine how great was my sur- 
 prise upon noticing from my new position that 
 the face of the man who had just entered was 
 that of the very same fellow that had come to us 
 the week before to wish to rent the place ! I felt 
 
SUSPECTED 103 
 
 so angry and disgusted at this flagrant act of 
 treason on his part that I actually felt as though 
 I could have killed the man had I only been 
 armed. 
 
 Not finding anything so very compromising in 
 the papers we had, the Germans decided to leave 
 us to ourselves. 
 
 At this juncture, poor Sister Wilkins, whose 
 nerves had been so upset by what had so sud- 
 denly occurred, sank into a chair and burst out 
 sobbing hysterically. The strain had been too 
 much, and it had broken her naturally proud, 
 calm, English spirit. We tried our best to 
 comfort her, but all in vain, for her poor 
 mind was in such a state that she did not under- 
 stand our friendly intentions toward her. So we 
 left her alone, and turned our attention to 
 Madame. In this kind lady's office, everything 
 was in disorder, the cruel intruders had rum- 
 maged every object that caught their gaze, and 
 had strewn it along with others upon the floor. 
 They had even taken Miss Cavell's family por- 
 traits from off the walls, torn them from their 
 frames and thrown them, rent and crumpled, on 
 the heap of ruins together with many other 
 family souvenirs. In the room in which the nine 
 Englishmen had been an hour before, everything, 
 
104 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 too, had been wrenched from the walls, and the 
 inspectors had been in such haste to discover the 
 whereabouts of the fugitive soldiers that they 
 had even smashed some of the windows. The Ger- 
 mans were now engaged in a thorough search of 
 the entire "clinique." Every nook and corner, 
 every cupboard and closet, was carefully ran- 
 sacked by them. When they had finished their 
 inspection, they proceeded to question the maids 
 so minutely and so often that they made the poor 
 creatures very nervous and frightened. They 
 burst into tears and were unfit to answer any 
 questions. 
 
 During this interval, I managed to glide noise- 
 lessly to one of the attics to look into the street, 
 with the hopes of seeing Jose. They had asked 
 for Jose several times before, perhaps they 
 guessed that he was helping in some of those acts 
 that they qualified as forbidden. Glancing out 
 of the window, I saw the other two Germans 
 looking about them probably with the same inten- 
 tion. My heart beat loud and fast with excite- 
 ment; but I was powerless to do anything! After 
 watching the street for a short while, I caught 
 a glimpse of Jose, but he was without the English 
 soldiers. I inferred from this that he had seen 
 the two inspectors, and had very prudently left 
 
SUSPECTED 105 
 
 the men he was with, for he immediately disap- 
 peared down a side street. The two Germans 
 decided to follow the lad, and they, likewise, van- 
 ished around the corner. 
 
 Continuing to gaze at this same spot so full 
 of interest to me, I noticed Pauline walking 
 toward two men. Upon closely scrutinizing the 
 latter, I was impressed with the idea that I had 
 seen these two men before. To make matters sure, 
 I descended to the front entrance of house No. 
 149. I arrived there just in time to see little 
 Pauline talking to two of the English Tommies 
 whom we had hidden that morning in our 
 "clinique," and who had just come into the street 
 from the vacant house next door to us. Walking 
 very slowly up to them in her simple childlike 
 way, she disappeared with them from my view. 
 I was somewhat anxious at this, for the direction 
 which she had taken was sure to lead to the two 
 German inspectors, and I feared lest they all 
 three would be caught. The mere thought of this 
 terrified me. 
 
 I re-entered the ''clinique." The two Germans 
 inside were engaged in close conversation. After 
 a few moments one of them went away. The 
 remaining one began to make preparations to com- 
 fortably install himself in the front room of No. 
 
io6 WITH EDITH CAVELL JN BELGIUM' 
 
 147. He took a newspaper from his pocket and 
 seemed, to all appearances, to be making himself 
 at home. 
 
 In the meantime, we nurses had sufficiently re- 
 covered from our commotion to be able to pre- 
 pare some food for Madame and ourselves. 
 
 Among the maids, I noticed Leonie, still trem- 
 bling with fear and looking much paler than the 
 others. She was most pitiable to behold. But I 
 had no time then to pay much attention to her. 
 I joined Sister Wilkins, who had sufficiently re- 
 covered, and we all went together to see Madame. 
 We found Jier in her bedroom, also looking pale, 
 but unchanged; she bade us see to everything, as 
 usual, and to go and take our tea at five o'clock. 
 When we saw her, calmly seated there, so small 
 and frail, so peacefully quiet in her great trials, 
 we almost felt as if we could fall down and wor- 
 ship her ! But, alas ! It seemed as though there 
 was a gulf between us, so impressed were we by 
 her stoic English nature ; and we dared not remain 
 with her in that bare miserable room. We felt 
 so awed at her presence that we even dared not 
 tell her what had become of our Englishmen. 
 Perhaps Pauline or someone else had told her of 
 them, or, maybe, at that moment, she did not 
 
SUSPECTED 107 
 
 fully realize with what great danger these men 
 were menaced. 
 
 We returned to our dining room, and partook 
 of a little food. We were glad when in a few 
 minutes we saw Madame come down to us. She 
 went to the kitchen and the laundry. She man- 
 aged to tranquilize the minds of the servants and 
 she also talked with us for a while, thanking us 
 for having so faithfully helped her throughout 
 these troublesome times. In a short time, order 
 was re-established in our home in spite of the 
 presence of that terrible German inspector in the 
 front room of No. 147. 
 
 Madame, eventually, came to one of our rooms 
 where she could better give directions to Miss 
 Wilkins, as to what was best for us to do. "You 
 must not show yourselves on the street," she said, 
 *'but must remain indoors as much as possible. 
 The German inspectors," she added, "might pos- 
 sibly go away in the night time." Such was her 
 conversation with us ; it renewed our courage and 
 stirred us to perform our various duties. 
 
 Shortly after six o'clock, little Pauline came 
 back laughing and cheerful. Her happy mood 
 seemed to be catching. I was nearly feeling quite 
 like my old self again, when I, together with the 
 other nurses, came to see her and to hear what 
 
io8 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 she had to say. But so clever was the sly little 
 English girl, that she did not betray her doings, 
 nor even laugh at us for our idle curiosity. She 
 merely turned her back upon us, and went on 
 eating a thin slice of bread as though nothing 
 had happened. That evening when I learned that 
 Jose was back in his own home with his family, 
 I went to the kitchen to find out what I could 
 concerning Pauline. It turned out, as I was cer- 
 tain it would, that the latter had helped the two 
 Englishmen to a place of safety in the house of 
 an humble Belgian watchmaker, who lived in the 
 Rue de Miroir, in Brussels. This man had ac- 
 cepted the poor fellows, and had concealed them 
 in his own home. 
 
 How had this high natured little girl found out 
 about this individual ? Who told her that he was 
 willing to help her ? This was more than we could 
 tell. It only went to show what a shrewd little 
 woman she was ! 
 
 She was also full of fun and playful mischief, 
 and she did not lack it on this occasion. Here is 
 an instance of it which she did not relate herself, 
 but which we learned later. Every time she had 
 to pass the room in which the solitary German 
 was comfortably installed, an event that oc- 
 curred at least some twenty times a day, she 
 
SUSPECTED 109 
 
 never said a word to him, but she also never failed 
 to stick out her tongue at him. The burly Teuton 
 would only look at her in return, with the air of 
 a man that frowns at a naughty child. 
 
 When the evening of that wearisome and 
 nerve-trying day at length came, we were all of 
 us glad to retire to our bed-rooms. We stood in 
 great need of rest. In spite of the presence of 
 that German inspector, who still continued to sit, 
 all alone, in that front room, we were again be- 
 ginning to feel more at ease. 
 
 Nevertheless, we decided among ourselves that 
 it would be prudent to have Mania Waschausky, 
 the night-nurse, keep watch over the front door 
 of No. 149. She could easily do this, as I had 
 done before, from the attic window; and if she 
 happened to set eyes on some of our fugitive 
 soldiers who might be returning home, she could 
 try, by way of Number 143, to get them into the 
 house unobserved. 
 
 So seventeen-year-old, little, black-eyed Mania, 
 with her beautiful Russian face, made herself 
 ready to keep a good lookout upon the different 
 entrances of our ''clinique." Madame had also 
 gone to her bed-room, and was perhaps at that 
 moment offering up prayers for the safety of 
 
no WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 those hungry and homeless Englishmen who were 
 wandering about the streets of Brussels. 
 
 The wind was from the west, and we could 
 distinctly hear, from a hundred to a hundred and 
 sixty kilometers away, the monotonous sounds of 
 continuous cannonading, and even see the blood- 
 red glare of the artillery fire that illumined the 
 whole sky of the western frontier, where our 
 brave fathers and brothers were nobly giving up 
 their lives for those whom they had been forced 
 to leave behind. What with the noise, and the 
 day's excitement, my nerves were so irritated that 
 I was unable to get a wink of sleep. I really 
 think that none of us were able that night to do 
 much sleeping, with the horrid fact tormenting 
 their minds that a burly German was keeping 
 watch in our midst. 
 
 I decided to go up with Paula Van Bockstaele 
 and observe the enemy's quarters, so we glided 
 noiselessly to the room in Number 147 and lis- 
 tened. What a sense of great relief we experi- 
 enced when we heard the stillness of the place 
 broken by the deep snoring of the German guard. 
 
 Paula, the sweet- faced little Belgian girl, went 
 to the door of No. 143 to watch the German there, 
 while Mania and I were both vigilantly leaning 
 out of an attic window. This was rather hard 
 
SUSPECTED III 
 
 work for us, and the awkward position nearly 
 wrenched our bodies out of shape. But we dared 
 not retire, for we instinctively felt that something 
 would happen. It was now about midnight, and 
 we had been for some time in this painfully un- 
 comfortable posture, when we were repaid for 
 our trouble by a glimpse of three shadowy forms 
 making towards our *'clinique." We at once 
 recognized them as being three of our men. The 
 thought instantly struck us that they would be- 
 tray their presence by ringing the door bell! 
 How were we to prevent this from happening? 
 It did not take a second for Mania hastily to 
 abandon her observation post, run as noiselessly 
 as possible to the basement of No. 143, open the 
 front door, and wave her handkerchief for the 
 men to approach. When they drew near, she 
 gravely pointed to their shoes, without uttering 
 a single word. They took the hint, and quickly 
 and noiselessly removed their foot-gear, and fol- 
 lowed her into house No. 143. The poor fellows 
 looked like emaciated ghosts, so terrible had been 
 their sufferings since the afternoon they left us. 
 Paula Van Bockstaele and I were trying to con- 
 ceal the men as noiselessly as possible, in a large 
 wardrobe in which we used to keep operating- 
 room linen. Mania had, in the interval, disap- 
 
112 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 peared and was now watching the German in No. 
 147. I went to Madame's room, to notify her 
 about what had occurred and to ask what was to 
 be done with the poor Tommies. Paula was 
 busying herself in the kitchen, like the good girl 
 she was, preparing food for them. 
 
 When I reached her room, Madame was kneel- 
 ing before her bed, engaged in prayer. Upon 
 seeing me, she quickly arose, and listened to my 
 story. Suddenly interrupting me before I had 
 time to finish it, she requested me to help her 
 get out of the house to conduct the men to Mon- 
 sieur Bancq. Dressed in her blue uniform, which 
 consisted of a little blue coat, a blue dress and a 
 hat of the same color, she was soon ready to enter 
 upon this new and perilous undertaking. 
 
 Silently I accompanied her on tip-toe through 
 the basement, and let her out into the street, where, 
 on the corner, she awaited the arrival of the men. 
 Mania and I then led them to the door, where 
 in eloquent dumb-show we pointed out Madame's 
 dim figure in the darkness. The sight of her 
 was enough for them, and they confidently fol- 
 lowed her, just as so many others had done before, 
 and they quickly vanished in the sombre night. 
 
 Now that we were certain that the men were 
 safely out of the house, our thoughts reverted to 
 
SUSPECTED 113 
 
 the German on guard. We now became suddenly 
 very much afraid of him, and none of us dared 
 to go to that room. We wasted a whole hour 
 before we could summon up courage to do so. 
 Our little Mania was the first one to show her 
 bravery, and she suddenly resolved to go there 
 all alone. After a few minutes, she returned to 
 tell us that the inspector was still there, but that 
 he was, now, wide awake, and moreover he was 
 very hungry. 
 
 I had not even seen the man, not daring to show 
 myself, because I knew that he was aware of the 
 fact that no one but Mania, the night nurse, had 
 a right to be up and on duty. We could not tell 
 whether he was asleep or not, during all these 
 occurrences. Who could tell what he was up to^ 
 or what his thoughts were? Perhaps, his only 
 thought upon seeing Mania's pretty, smiling face, 
 was of his own wife and children in his Father- 
 land! 
 
 At six o'clock in the morning Madame entered 
 exhausted. She looked haggard and pale, while 
 she told us that she had walked all the way, a dis- 
 tance of six miles, to and from Monsieur Bancq's 
 house. She appeared so weak that it made Sister 
 Wilkins cry to see her. We helped her to her 
 room and put her to bed. We then gave her some 
 
114 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 coffee which seemed to restore her a Uttle. She 
 could scarcely speak. She could only make signs 
 of yes and no with her head. She was cheerful, 
 however, and oh ! the happiness that shone in her 
 eyes — and from her inmost soul ! It plainly told 
 us that she had again helped to save some unfor- 
 tunate men from falling into the hands of their 
 enemies, and felt fully repaid for all her trouble ! 
 
 The German downstairs had seen Miss Cavell 
 come in. Thank God that he did not ask us any 
 questions. At seven o'clock he left the house. 
 We were no further disturbed that day and we 
 began to breathe freely once more. 
 
 But unfortunately this happy state was not to 
 last long, for menacing clouds were lowering over 
 us. The invisible but subtle web of surveillance 
 was slowly but surely drawing its cruel meshes 
 around our former peaceful home. 
 
 Such was the strain on our nerves at this 
 period that the least thing was enough to frighten 
 us. When Madame entered the room to tell us 
 of her intention to visit the New Clinique, we 
 all weepingly begged her to remain with us. We 
 were afraid to be left alone. Even Jack, the dog, 
 kept up a continual moaning, and Pauline, too, 
 appeared frightened. We all of us felt down- 
 hearted ; the maids and the cook sat pale and for- 
 
SUSPECTED 115 
 
 lorn in a corner of the kitchen, and Jose himself 
 was so sad at what was happening that he actu- 
 ally forgot to smoke his customary cigar. 
 
 It is impossible for me to describe how startled 
 we became at the least little event. We nearly 
 collapsed when the baker came in the morning. 
 Whenever Pauline heard the door bell ring, she 
 would become so nervous that she could scarcely 
 move her lips to answer the caller. We were all 
 of us in terrible dread of another descent of in- 
 spectors upon our dwelling. By this time, too, 
 the whole neighborhood had got wind of the 
 German inspectors' visit, and it was all the talk 
 at the Grocer's store. It seemed to us that the 
 neighbors were all pointing their fingers at us, 
 behind our backs. We were so timid at this 
 thought that when we went to the new clinique 
 to take, beforehand, some of the instruments 
 necessary for the operating room, we ran like 
 little children who are afraid to be alone in the 
 road, as fast as our feet could carry us. 
 
 After a few days, however, we began to regain 
 somewhat our former calmness. It seemed, again, 
 as though we were being forgotten by the Ger- 
 mans, and we immediately began to make hopeful 
 plans for the future. We set to work strenuously 
 to clean and pack a thousand little things for our 
 
fi. /*. 7U 
 
 ^ LcZA^^*-''-x.-/i--x? 
 
 ^^^-^ 
 
 /f^^l-^/- V 
 
 Il6 
 
Nurse Van Til 
 
 3 slices of bread 
 
 E. Cavell. 
 I2th of July, 1915. 
 
 117 
 
ii8 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 new home. Jose had already begun to paint the 
 chairs and wardrobes. As Madame's means did 
 not allow of her renting a moving van, we were 
 all of us required to aid in the moving. 
 
 We began the work on July 12th, and each 
 day we did as much of it as we were able to do. 
 This was no easy task, I can assure you, for we 
 had to carry many of the pieces of furniture by 
 hand, or in a small hand cart. 
 
 On the fifteenth, Madame, in person, went with 
 some of us to point out where our future sleeping 
 rooms were located. She designated room No. 
 26 for me, and I shall never forget, upon receiv- 
 ing it, the impression made upon me by the fact 
 that I had now to take care of it myself, learn 
 how to make my own bed neatly, and keep the 
 place tidy and free from dust. This in our old 
 clinique had been done by the servants. 
 
 The moving of our furniture to the New 
 Buildings progressed very slowly. It took us 
 more than four weeks to accomplish it. Some 
 of the nurses had previously entered into the new 
 place and had made it their sleeping quarters; 
 while Sister Wilkins, Madame, I and some others, 
 still remained in our old home. 
 
 On the 29th of July, Mr. Quin came back 
 and asked to see Madame. We were every one of 
 
SUSPECTED 119 
 
 us in a tremble, for we thought it was dangerous 
 for him to remain. We warned him that the 
 house was under suspicion of the Germans. He 
 assured us that he had no other place to go to. 
 At sight of him, Leonie, the maid, nearly ran into 
 his arms, while Jose's face fairly beamed with joy 
 to see him. Madame also seemed very glad to 
 see him again, and she promised to give him a 
 room for that night. 
 
 The very next morning, Mr. Quin left us as 
 suddenly as he had come, accompanied, as usual, 
 by Madame, Jose and Jack. The separation 
 appeared to me to be rather hard for him to bear, 
 for he wept like a woman. We thought, by his 
 actions, that he was afraid to go to the war, but 
 I found out later why he melted into tears. 
 It served as a veil for his eyes, to prevent him 
 from seeing the noble woman who, drop by drop, 
 was giving up her life's blood to pay for this man's 
 love of ease and pleasure. 
 
 On the fourth of August, Madame received the 
 visit of three men who said they were English; 
 but she refused to receive them. She gave as an 
 excuse that we were moving out. She gave them 
 a card with Mr. Severin's address upon it. Alas ! 
 Poor Mr. Severin, the Brussels pharmacist ! Poor 
 
120 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 Mr. Bancq! and poor Madame! Little did we 
 think what was in store for them ! 
 
 That same afternoon, we had another visit; 
 this time, it was that of a German officer, who 
 wished to talk to Madame. We nurses were much 
 stirred up by this visit. We actually shivered so 
 much with fright that we must have quite betrayed 
 ourselves to him. We all lost our heads, and like 
 little children, we burst out crying. Even Sister 
 Wilkins could not remain quiet. Although Pau- 
 line told us that the man spoke very politely to 
 Madame, yet we could no longer have confidence 
 in any German. After a while the officer came 
 out of her office, and took his leave with a polite 
 salutation. Miss Cavell then came out seeming 
 as calm as usual. We ran toward her, to learn 
 something about the visit; but we could gather 
 nothing from her sealed lips. 
 
 Some hours later, however, Sister Wilkins 
 found Madame suffering from a terrible heart 
 attack. It appeared that she had been subject to 
 such attacks for quite a long time, but had always 
 managed to keep it to herself. We did everything 
 we could to help her, but unfortunately we were 
 powerless to do much ! 
 
 The next day she seemed a little better, and she 
 informed us that the German officer had asked 
 
SUSPECTED 121 
 
 her if she had received any letters from the Lon- 
 don war-office. He had looked over all her books, 
 and found that the accounts had been neglected 
 for three months back. He sardonically remarked 
 that she must have had much to do to be thus 
 prevented from keeping a good record of her 
 money matters, showing thereby how crafty and 
 knowing these Germans were, and how well aware 
 they were of our doings; but cat-like, they en- 
 joyed breaking their knowledge slowly to us, to 
 worry us a bit, before finally pouncing down upon 
 us. We became greatly alarmed when Madame 
 told us that we must try to keep clear headed and 
 cool, so as to help her as much as possible. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 MISS CAVELL ARRESTED 
 
 On the 6th of August, we all of us were very 
 much occupied with moving. We now had a little 
 wagon with which to transport our furniture, and 
 Jose and the maids were hard at work pulling the 
 vehicle by main force to the new abode. 
 
 We nurses had also been very busy that after- 
 noon, but were just engaged in talking matters 
 over, when we were suddenly interrupted by the 
 entrance of three men. They wore no uniforms, 
 and we at first thought that they only wanted to 
 examine some pieces of furniture which Madame 
 desired to sell. But another glance at them was 
 sufficient to show us that we were greatly mis- 
 taken. The expression on their faces was exult- 
 ingly gleeful. They laughed and talked together 
 in German, pointing the while at Sister Wilkins 
 and Mania. I inferred from this that we were 
 now fallen into the merciless hands of the Boches, 
 who were gloating over the fact that we had 
 finally been caught in their net. 
 
 122 
 
MISS CAVELL ARRESTED 123 
 
 They commanded us not to move, and pointing 
 their revolvers at our heads, they roughly pushed 
 us into a corner of the room. We now fully 
 realized that we were prisoners. 
 
 At this juncture, we heard a low sobbing in 
 the hallway; it was from little Pauline, who, 
 seated upon the stairs in front of Madame's 
 office, was weeping enough to break her little 
 heart. Besides myself and Miss Wilkins, there 
 were five nurses in all there. Their names were 
 as follows : Sister Wilkins, Miss Waschausky, 
 Miss Van Bockstaele, Helen Wegels, Fernande 
 Weil. Sister Wilkins tried to escape, but one 
 of the men led her to another room where she 
 began to scream loudly and wanted to see 
 Madame. We could give no aid, and were afraid 
 to move from the spot. The suspense was ter- 
 rible, the awful moments seemed to drag so slowly 
 by. Suddenly we heard the sound of several 
 voices, the door burst open, and the figure of 
 Madame issued, or rather was roughly pushed 
 through the doorway into the room where we 
 were, in the direction of the front door. Miss 
 Cavell noticed us as she passed, and, pausing for 
 an instant, made us see that she still had us in her 
 heart. In spite of that hour of misery, she yet 
 had time to think of what she could do to aid 
 
124 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 and encourage her nurses. In a calm and tender 
 voice she said, ''Don't be so sad, my children. 
 Everything will be all right. Fll be back soon; 
 be good and wise." 
 
 The German in charge of her put her into an 
 automobile that was stationed before the door. 
 The other men took Miss Wilkins and placed her 
 in another automobile. All these events took 
 place so rapidly that we scarcely realized what 
 was happening. Poor Jack was howling discon- 
 solately all the while, and some maids ran out of 
 the house, but they were met by some other Ger- 
 mans who brought them back at the point of the 
 revolver. 
 
 Things were in a terrible state now, in our 
 "clinique." We could still see in imagination 
 Madame's calm face, so deep was its impression 
 engraved upon our memories. We began to count 
 the minutes for her return. 'Would she come 
 back soon?" we asked ourselves. We were all 
 huddled together like prisoners and were not 
 allowed to move from the spot. For five long 
 hours we were thus detained, sobbing and moan- 
 ing all the while. 
 
 It was four o'clock when Madame and Sister 
 Wilkins were so suddenly taken away. At nine 
 o'clock the latter returned alone. We were all 
 
MISS CAVELL ARRESTED 125 
 
 of us eager to find out what had happened to 
 Madame, but the poor sister was so terribly 
 nervous that she fell to the floor in a fit of hys- 
 teria, screaming so loudly that some of the neigh- 
 bors came over to look in at the windows to see 
 what was the matter. Jack was continuously 
 hovering around Miss Wilkins. Perhaps he 
 realized what was being done to his beloved mis- 
 tress. 
 
 One of the Germans at this instant announced 
 to us that Miss Cavell was detained at the Com- 
 mandantur. We were all very familiar with that 
 name ; it did not sound so terrible to us then, the 
 Commandantur, or German Headquarters, and 
 the edifice in which it was established belonged to 
 the Belgian Administration, the members of which 
 were at that time either in England or in France. 
 These buildings were not very large, and were 
 situated in the Rue de la Loi, opposite King 
 Leopold's Park. 
 
 Prisoners were not kept for a long time in 
 this place, as there was not room enough in it 
 for them. After a fortnight's detention they 
 were sent home, or to some other headquarters 
 in Laeken. The treatment there was much better 
 than in any other prison. Hence, when we heard 
 that Madame was at the Commandantur, we felt 
 
126 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 somewhat reassured about her. When Miss Wil- 
 kins was able to talk to us, she told us that 
 Madame seemed to be well treated by the officials 
 there, and that, in all probability, she would be 
 back with us the next morning or in the after- 
 noon. 
 
 The Germans had, in the meantime, decided as 
 to what they were going to do with us. They did 
 not keep us shut up in our rooms, but allowed us 
 to move freely about in our four houses. The 
 only restriction we were under was that of having 
 to ask permission whenever we wished to go out- 
 doors. When this was granted we were invariably 
 accompanied by a German functionary, who 
 always kept close behind us. As one's existence 
 constantly maintains its course even in sorrow, 
 ours was no exception to the rule, and we were 
 obliged to go about our every day work as regu- 
 larly as ever. We generally performed most of 
 our work in the morning, without any hindrance. 
 
 The next day our horrible nightmare recom- 
 menced, for we heard that Monsieur Bancq had 
 been arrested at the same time as Miss Cavell, 
 and that he had been sent to the St. Gilles Prison. 
 We could not help thinking of his wife and chil- 
 dren. How helpless they would now be without 
 his protection in these troublesome times ! 
 
Two Views of Cellar in which Miss Cavell Was 
 Imprisoned 
 
Prison Showing Door by which Miss Cavell Left 
 ON THE Way to Execution 
 
MISS CAVELL ARRESTED 127 
 
 Yet we could not give much thought to them, 
 because Madame was ever present in our minds, 
 to such an extent that some of the nurses seemed 
 still to hear the sound of her voice in the now 
 vacant office. The morning slipped slowly by, 
 and still we had no news of our dear Matron. 
 
 That afternoon a new proclamation was posted 
 on the city walls, stating that it had been forbidden 
 for any one, man or woman, to aid or hide men 
 of English or French Nationality in their homes 
 under penalty of death. One of these hideous 
 placards was placed immediately opposite our new 
 Clinique. This was the first time we had seen it 
 there, and how horrible seemed to us the purport 
 of its words ! Yet, even now we did not fully 
 realize its fatal meaning, nor how closely it con- 
 cerned us, as well as our dear mistress, the sound 
 of whose footsteps we every moment imagined 
 we could distinctly hear, and whose familiar form, 
 attired in its blue uniform, we expectantly looked 
 to see enter her office. 
 
 On the second day of Madame's imprisonment. 
 Miss Wilkins received a post card from the Ger- 
 man Commandantur asking for some clothes and 
 linen for our mistress. Sister Wilkins prepared 
 everything that was necessary, and delivered it 
 herself at the Commandantur. She remained 
 
128 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 away for some time, and when she returned she 
 seemed broken hearted. She had not been al- 
 lowed, she told us, even to see Madame, and 
 moreover the German officers had treated her very 
 rudely. 
 
 Several of us went there to see her also; but 
 we all came back feeling very much disappointed. 
 We, too, were not merely forbidden to see our 
 dear mistress, but the German soldiers actually 
 laughed at us when we mentioned her name. 
 
 On the following day we learned that the Prin- 
 cess de Croy, the Countess de Belleville, Mademoi- 
 selle Thuilliez and several other members of that 
 organization had all been made prisoners. We 
 began to feel more and more anxious about our- 
 selves, and being without a directing mind to help 
 us, we became mere shadows of our former selves. 
 We waited in vain for four days, but nothing 
 came to enlighten us as to the fate of our dear 
 mistress, and we felt as though we were engulfed 
 in darkness. 
 
 Our housekeeping was beginning to be greatly 
 neglected, many pieces of our furniture were 
 stolen. The maids went out whenever they could, 
 and Sister Wilkins was too sick to be able prop- 
 erly to take charge of sending out the furniture. 
 Jose seemed very unhappy, and faithful old 
 
im 
 
 ^<> 
 
 ^r^fi^^lii. s-ue, T- 
 
 129 
 
130 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 Jack would be lying the whole day long in front 
 of his absent mistress's door. 
 
 The Germans were constantly in and around 
 our new clinique, and when the day finally came 
 for us to permanently enter the building, they de- 
 liberately accompanied us there, so suspicious were 
 they of our movements. 
 
 Those were terrible days for us; God alone 
 knows how terrible! It seemed to us, utterly in 
 the darkness as we were, that everything was 
 going wrong, while we were all alone without the 
 good hand of our thoughtful mistress to come to 
 our aid ! 
 
 On the loth of August we learned from one 
 of the members of the clinique that Miss Cavell 
 had been on the 8th of the month transferred to 
 the St. Gilles Prison in Brussels. We could 
 scarcely believe it. The mere word ''Prison" was 
 in itself so terrible to us; and it made us feel 
 that something horrible had occurred to her. We 
 wrote her several times, little nurses' notes, full of 
 tenderness, — of innocent words, the outpourings 
 of humble hearts. We counted our money ; it was 
 little enough, a few silver coins, and one or two 
 copper sous. We bought flowers with it; some 
 roses and a bunch of white chrysanthemums — her 
 favorite flowers! How carefully we selected 
 
MISS CAVELL ARRESTED 131 
 
 them! Each nurse reverently touched each rose 
 that was to be given to her. We sent them to our 
 mistress, but, alas ! we got no answer. We waited 
 and waited for many days, but never a word did 
 we get. 
 
 We knew from Dr. Le Boeuf, who had brought 
 some patients to the new clinique, that Mr. Sadie 
 Kirschen, a Belgian lawyer, was allowed to see 
 her in her cell, and to take charge of her case. 
 
 In these sad and weary days, when a new 
 housekeeper had been accepted by the committee 
 to look after us, we had only one friend in whom 
 we could confide or from whom we could ask 
 information. This person was a lawyer, too, by 
 profession, and a member of the committee. His 
 name was Mr. Van Alteren. He did everything 
 he could to help us, but he was powerless to do 
 much because he himself was held in suspicion by 
 the Germans, and when we stood most in need of 
 his aid, he also was taken away from us and sent 
 to Prison. 
 
 We waited during the entire month of August 
 for news of Miss Cavell. None came. We began 
 to feel weary. All interest in the clinique seemed 
 to have died away. Everything appeared aban- 
 doned and different from what it used to be. 
 For instance, all the servants, together with Pau- 
 
132 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 line, had been discharged. The new housekeeper 
 showed herself to be very strict. When we dared 
 to ask her why Pauline was sent away, we were 
 told that they only desired well educated atten- 
 dants. 
 
 How dark and hopeless those dreary days 
 appeared to us! With the cannon everlastingly 
 booming in the distance and the pangs of hunger 
 gradually but surely making themselves more diffi- 
 cult to bear, our sorrow and anxiety were all the 
 more intensified by thoughts of our unfortunate 
 Mistress in her prison cell. 
 
 We roamed around her prison whenever we' 
 could do so, to try to get news of her; but the 
 Head Warden, a Mr. Marin, a Belgian, though 
 he was an amiable and willing man, could do 
 nothing to help us. We could only learn from his 
 wife that the room occupied by Madame was No. 
 23. Nothing further could we find out. 
 
 September came, and still no news. Several 
 nurses resigned, and new girls who had been 
 accepted some months before by Edith Cavell, 
 took their places; only a few of the nurses who 
 had helped Madame in the Old Clinique now re- 
 mained. Many changes had taken place in the 
 New One, where the different papers were 
 examined daily by several ladies of the committee, 
 
MISS CAVELL ARRESTED 133 
 
 whom we scarcely knew. All these individuals 
 seemed so different to us, and yet they were, for 
 the most part, composed of the same members 
 who were at the little clinique in the rue de la 
 Culture when we received the fugitive soldiers. 
 
 About September the 14th, Sister Wilkins, at 
 last, got a letter from Miss Cavell. How can I 
 describe the eagerness with which we all crowded 
 around to listen to the reading of the precious 
 epistle ! How its every word seemed to soothe and 
 caress our ears ! 
 
 It ran as follows : 
 
 Prison of St. Gilles, 
 
 Brussels. 
 My dear Nurses:- 14th September, 1915. 
 
 Your charming letter has given me much pleasure, 
 and your beautiful flowers brought life and gay 
 colors into my cell; the roses are still very fresh, 
 but the chrysanthemums did not like prison Hfe; 
 they are like me; they cannot resist a very long 
 time. 
 
 I am very happy to hear that you are attending 
 to your work and that you are devoted to your 
 patients and that the patients are satisfied. 
 
 I hope you will continue with your studies, just 
 as tho' I were there, because in a very short time 
 you will have to undergo an examination and I 
 would like to have you ready for it. 
 
134 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 The new term begins very soon; try to profit by 
 your past experiences, always be prompt, because 
 the doctors do not Hke to wait for their pupils. 
 
 Everywhere in life we learn something new and 
 if you were in my place you would soon realize 
 how precious is liberty and how grateful we should 
 be to have it. 
 
 We must all learn patience. It is not enough to 
 be a good nurse only, but you should also be Chris- 
 tian women. 
 
 It seems that the new clinique is very nicely 
 arranged. I hope I will see it soon and all my 
 nurses as well. 
 
 Good-bye, be wise and good. 
 
 Truly yours, 
 
 Edith Cavell. 
 
 This letter gave us a little hope and for the first 
 time in all these sad days of our directrice's 
 absence we summoned up the courage to play on 
 the piano our national hymn, the ^'Brabangonne," 
 and the English one of "God Save the King." 
 But on the following day our ill-founded hopes 
 again vanished. One of the members of the com- 
 mittee, Mr. Heeger, a professor of the University 
 of Brussels, who very often frequented the 
 ''Clinique," came in and expressed his opinion 
 that Miss Cavell would be sent to Germany. Most 
 of the members of the committee thought as he 
 
MISS CAVELL ARRESTED 135 
 
 did. We could not believe this to be possible; 
 but were still full of hope ; and at frequent inter- 
 vals, during the long days of anxious waiting, we 
 could be seen gathered together, talking about 
 Madame, and persuading one another that she 
 would soon be back with us. 
 
 On the 2 1st of September, Mr. Heeger in- 
 formed us that he had received another letter from 
 Miss Cavell in which she seemed to be quite well 
 and in high spirits. 
 
 Letter from Miss Edith Cavell to Monsieur 
 Heeger : — 
 
 Saint Gilles Prison, Sept. 22, 191 5. 
 Monsieur Heger, 
 
 Miss Wilkins told me that you asked me to write 
 to you; it is with pleasure that I respond to your 
 request; unfortunately I have not yet been able 
 to send any letters. 
 
 I regretted deeply to have been forced to leave 
 the school * at the time of our moving and to have 
 left all my affairs in disorder. 
 
 * Miss Cavell alluded here to the transfer of the school 
 for nurses in the little clinique to the new buildings which 
 it now occupies. 
 
 Jficole Edith Cavell 
 
 £cole Beige d' Infirmieres diplomees 
 1914-1919 
 From 
 (Committee of Administration Report) 
 
136 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 I hope that now everything is well arranged and 
 organized according to your desires. 
 
 I shall be very happy to see you a little later on; 
 there will be certain things to be arranged, and I 
 should like to have the opportunity to speak with 
 you . . . 
 
 Please give my regards to all the members of the 
 Committee, etc. . . . 
 
 Edith Cavell. 
 
 These little bits of information contributed to 
 strengthen our belief that our dear Directrice, 
 after a few months of detention, would certainly 
 be released, as, from the perusal of the above letter 
 we can infer that she herself thought she would be. 
 
 On the 22nd of the same month, we heard, 
 through Mr. Van Alteren, that Maitre Sadie 
 Kirschen was no longer allowed to see her in 
 prison. The German court had allotted her a new 
 lawyer of their own nationality. This news made 
 us feel very sad ; it looked terribly ominous to us. 
 Nevertheless, we, and even the members of the 
 committee, had still some hope left of her return. 
 The latter had done all they could to endeavor to 
 communicate with Madame ; but all in vain ! The 
 German hearts remained as mercilessly closed to 
 pity as did the huge prison doors that cruelly en- 
 closed our dear suffering Directrice. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE EXECUTION 
 
 About seven o'clock on the eleventh of October, 
 while we were all sitting together in the school- 
 room with most of our day's work done, we were 
 talking as usual about Madame, and were still 
 deluding ourselves with the hope of her speedy 
 return. Just then, one of the nurses happened to 
 look out of the window and recognized Mr. Van 
 Alteren, who seemed to be plunged in a state of 
 profound despondency. The nurse asked me if I 
 knew why he appeared so worried. I could give 
 no answer, however, but, impelled by I know not 
 what, I arose and immediately ran to the front 
 door, where the good gentleman was standing, 
 with his broad shoulders bathed in a sea of golden 
 sunshine that was striving against fate to make 
 the grief-stricken clinique appear like a happy 
 dreamland. There was something fatally tragic 
 in the expression of Mr. Van Alteren's eyes, as 
 I asked him, with a quick and nervous voice, if 
 
 137 
 
138 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 he knew anything about Madame! He did not 
 speak a word; but entered with me the small 
 library that was near the entrance. 
 
 Still, I could not realize that matters were any 
 worse ; but, when, in a voice choking with sorrow, 
 he said to me, 'Toor child! poor nurses!" I felt 
 that the worst had come and that Madame was 
 lost to us forever! 
 
 With a voice dry with sorrow and emotion, I 
 intuitively gasped, **When?" 'To-morrow at five 
 o'clock," he answered. 
 
 I do not recollect in what state of mind I re- 
 turned to tmpart the news to the other nurses, 
 but, alas! they were already informed of it. Dr. 
 Heeger, who had that instant heard the horrible 
 news from Maitre Sadie Kirschen, had immedi- 
 ately told it to Sister Wilkins, who was wild with 
 emotion at it, to such an extent that it was impos- 
 sible for us to keep her in the house; she could 
 not be tranquilized, but excitedly exclaimed that 
 she wanted to go and save Miss Cavell. 
 
 We felt too miserable to pay much attention to 
 her then, for, in fact, we did not know how to 
 act. We had to try hard to keep cool ourselves 
 under this great affliction. Oh.! but they were 
 sad and soul-wracking times! The memory of 
 
THE EXECUTION 139 
 
 those agonizing days shall forever cling to the 
 depths of my heart and soul ! 
 
 Towards eight o'clock, however, we began to 
 notice the absence of Sister Wilkins. She, being 
 English and in a very excited state of mind, we 
 were in fear that something serious had happened 
 to her. We waited an hour for her, during which 
 interval we thought over what we could do to 
 save Madame. At nine o'clock Miss Van Bock- 
 staele. Miss Buck, an English girl, Miss Was- 
 chausky and I went to the Prison. We had been 
 there many times before and the kind-hearted 
 Belgian, Mr. Marin, Superintendent of the 
 Prison, had done as much as he was able to do 
 for us. This time, too, he promised to bid good- 
 bye to Madame for us, if it could be done, but 
 he could not vouch for it, as there were two Ger- 
 man Wardens on duty before her cell. Upon 
 asking Mr. Marin about Sister Wilkins, he said 
 that he found her all upset and that she had 
 fainted before the prison door. He had taken her 
 to his wife's room, and, when she had awakened 
 from the swoon, he had had her sent to the home 
 of Reverend Father Graham, an English minis- 
 ter who had attended Madame before she 
 went to the prison. We went to this good man's 
 home in one of the suburbs of Brussels, but he 
 
140 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 was at that moment in St. Gilles engaged in 
 administering to the last spiritual wants of Miss 
 Cavell. He had obtained this great favor from 
 the German chaplain, who was a kind-hearted and 
 charitable man. 
 
 We gathered all these facts from Reverend 
 Graham's housekeeper, and it was in his house 
 that we also found our lost Sister Wilkins. 
 
 We waited for about half an hour in that 
 strange and dreary place. It was about ten 
 o'clock when the Minister returned. He informed 
 us that Madame, our dear mother Directrice, was 
 prepared for the terrible ordeal of the morrow. 
 We tried as hard as we possibly could to keep 
 from bursting into tears before the noble-hearted 
 father; we asked him what we could do to help 
 Madame. He put on his hat and told us to ac- 
 company him to the American Consulate, adding 
 that perhaps the United States Consul might be 
 able to do something. 
 
 When we reached the American Consulate, we 
 heard that Mr. Brand Whitlock was ill, but that 
 Mr. Hugh Gibson was ready to receive us. We 
 told that young and noble-minded gentleman our 
 sad story, earnestly entreating him to help us. We 
 certainly must have looked forlorn to him, in that 
 large American room, with tears streaming down 
 
THE EXECUTION 141 
 
 our cheeks. It must have moved him to pity, for 
 he immediately volunteered to help us. He sent 
 a hasty message to the Spanish minister, de Villa- 
 lobar, and one also to the Dutch Ambassador, 
 Maurice Van Hollenhover, for them to assist him 
 in his endeavor to free Miss Cavell. The Dutch 
 ambassador refused to enter the undertaking, but 
 the Spanish Minister, de Villalobar, saddened at 
 the fatal nev^s, came w^ith all possible haste to 
 Mr. Gibson's help. These two gentlemen v^ent to- 
 gether to General Von Bissing's headquarters. In 
 the meantime, we anxiously awaited the result of 
 their mission seated together in one end of the 
 large room of the Consulate under the protection 
 of the American Eagle that hung, with outspread 
 wings, upon the wall. Our hopes began to rise 
 again; but we were soon doomed to disappoint- 
 ment, however, for when Mr. Gibson and the 
 Spanish Ambassador returned we realized that 
 they, too, were unable to gain any better results 
 than we had done. The Reverend Dr. Graham 
 imparted to us the futile results of their visit to 
 Von Bissing. They found Von Bissing very 
 polite, but he excused himself on the pretext that 
 he was only Governor General of Belgium, and 
 that he did not form part of, or exercise any in- 
 fluence over, the War Council. Consequently he 
 
142 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 had no say in the affairs of Miss Cavell. Von 
 Bissing phoned, however, to several other German 
 officials for them to use their influence in saving 
 Madame from execution; but all in vain! The 
 latter functionaries did not dare to interfere with 
 orders emanating from the German Headquarters 
 of the War Council in Berlin. 
 
 General Von Bissing then promised to give Mr. 
 Hugh Gibson a letter of introduction to that most 
 horrible of all men, Von Saubersweig, the most 
 cruel soldier that ever existed. He was Governor 
 of the German War Council in Belgium, and, 
 under his iron rule, had condemned, daily, many 
 an unfortunate person to death or to imprison- 
 ment for life. 
 
 Mr. Hugh Gibson and the Spanish Ambassador 
 went to this monster's house; but he was absent. 
 They had much difficulty in getting him ; but they 
 finally discovered him in a vulgar bar-room where 
 he was relaxing his ferocious mind by viewing 
 entertainments of a low and immoral nature. His 
 excellency took no pains to conceal his displeasure 
 at being disturbed at his favorite amusements, 
 and at having to be bored again with War Council 
 business. He either found no time to listen to 
 the suppliant voices of the noble gentlemen before 
 him, or, most probably, he was laboring too much 
 
t PROCLAMiTIOH 
 
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 E« M qoi cMKr^ra* B4'*CV ct Edifh C4VELL. I« jajremeni a <l<'j» 
 rt^« pfeine exievtiott- 
 
 t» Oiu^ni GMrrvTDCUf <J« hrfticUft portc rci fails a U et>Dn.iv»«B<-» 
 
 
 Proclamation Announcing the Death of 
 Miss Cavell 
 
u 
 
 m 
 
THE EXECUTION 143 
 
 under the influence of liquor to be softened by 
 their pleadings ; for he immediately became angry, 
 and lost all dignified control over himself. With 
 a flushed face, and a rising voice, he actually 
 screamed at them, that Miss Cavell would be led 
 to execution at four o'clock the next day. 
 
 I am ignorant of what further occurred then. 
 Mr. Hugh Gibson has written a book about the 
 judgment of Miss Cavell. It does not enter into 
 the sphere of this humble narrative. 
 
 When we heard what these men had to say, we 
 felt that there was no further room left for hope ; 
 we turned our sad and weary steps homeward 
 through the dark shadows of that dreary night. 
 It seemed as though we were dragging our un- 
 willing feet over newly made graves. 
 
 Upon reaching the clinique we found Miss Wil- 
 kins in a state of nervous breakdown. We could 
 hear her sad and grave voice praying in a dreary 
 tone, and constantly repeating : ''Oh, God ! OH ! 
 my Lord ! Please give my mistress back to me ! 
 Please give my mistress back ! Take my life away 
 if you will, but give her back to me" ; until, 
 finally, her voice died away in a whisper, and 
 she fell into a state of profound unconsciousness. 
 Her blond hair was so changed that she seemed 
 
144 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 to have been suddenly transformed into an old 
 woman. 
 
 I cannot recollect what we did, Paula, Mania, 
 I and the others, for we did nothing but sob and 
 sob, until our hearts seemed as though they would 
 break. 
 
 Towards four o'clock on that fatal morning, 
 we put on our hats and cloaks, and again wended 
 our lonely way through the darkness to the prison. 
 We rang the bell ; it struck our ears with a dismal 
 sound that made our souls shiver with horror. 
 When Mr. Marin, the superintendent, opened to 
 us, we halted before the entrance, and exclaimed 
 with voices choked with emotion, "Oh, give her 
 to us ! God help us !" 
 
 The poor, kind-hearted Mr. Marin had tears in 
 his eyes. He tried to console us by saying that 
 Madame was very brave. He learned this much 
 from one of the German wardens, who was, it 
 seemed, more truthful than the others. The 
 Superintendent told us that if we waited a while 
 we might possibly catch a glimpse of our beloved 
 mistress, when the automobile would come out 
 of the prison to take her to the "Tir National," or 
 rifle range, where she was to be executed. 
 
 At five o'clock in the morning, on October 
 the 1 2th, of memorable date, two hideous war- 
 
THE EXECUTION 145 
 
 cars issued grimly from the prison entrance. 
 Anxiously and expectantly we gazed at them. *'In 
 which one of these horrid vehicles was Madame?" 
 **In which one was she?" — It seemed to me that I 
 caught sight of her blue uniform. Was it merely 
 imagination, or was it really she ? — Who knows ? 
 
 That was all we saw ! The stillness of the city 
 houses seemed to come to our aid. We could only 
 cry out with one voice, "Madame ! Madame !" as 
 the horrid death-cars rapidly vanished from our 
 tearful eyes. 
 
 Without looking any further we mournfully 
 turned our steps towards the New Clinique. 
 Upon reaching it, we saw the bright morning sun 
 just pouring its golden beams over a portrait of 
 our Madame, surrounded by us nurses. The sight 
 of this picture, crowned as it was with a glorious 
 light, made us keenly feel the sad loss of our 
 martyred Mistress, so suddenly taken away from 
 us. We were racked with sorrow at the thought 
 that we should never see Madame again. I could 
 not bear to remain indoors, but went out brooding 
 over her unfortunate fate, thinking only of the 
 cruel German rifles that had ruthlessly murdered 
 her; that the good and kind-hearted woman, 
 whose portrait we just saw, was now lying cold in 
 
146 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 death, on the forgotten rifle ranges of the ''Tir 
 National !" 
 
 A few hours later on that fatal day of October 
 1 2th, we received a final shock, that greatly in- 
 creased our sorrow and impressed us with the 
 certitude of our irrecoverable loss. Our eyes were 
 assailed by the most pitiless proclamation that we 
 had yet seen, placarded on the walls of Brussels. 
 It read as follows : 
 
 Translation of Proclamation ; 
 Proclamation: 
 
 The Tribunal of the Imperial War Council 
 
 of Germany 
 
 Held in Brussels 
 
 Has pronounced the following sentences; 
 
 The following persons are condemned to the pen- 
 alty of Death for treason in organized bands: 
 
 Edith Cavell, a Teacher of Brussels 
 Philippe Bancq, an Architect of Brussels 
 Jeanne de Belleville, of Montignies 
 Louis Thuilliez, a Teacher of Lille 
 Louis Severin, Pharmacist of Brussels 
 Albert Libiez, a lawyer of Mons. 
 
 For the same motive the following have been 
 condemned to fifteen years' hard labor; 
 
THE EXECUTION 147 
 
 Herman Capiau, a Civil Engineer of Wasmes 
 
 Ada Bodart, of Brussels 
 
 George Derveau, a pharmacist of Paturages 
 
 Mary deCroy of Bellignies. 
 
 At the same sessions, the War Council has pro- 
 nounced against seventeen others accused of treason 
 towards the Imperial Armies, sentences of hard- 
 labor, and imprisonment. 
 
 As far as concerns Bancq and Edith Cavell, 
 judgment has already been fully executed. 
 
 The Governor General of Brussels places these 
 facts before the public as a solemn warning to them. 
 
 Governor of the City 
 General Von Bissing. 
 
 Brussels, the 12th Oct., 1915. 
 
 TO THE INHABITANTS OF BRUSSELS : 
 
 The above is the Proclamation of the Governor 
 Von Bissing, announcing the condemnation to death 
 and the execution of Miss Cavell and of the Archi- 
 tect Bancq, which was placarded on the walls of 
 Brussels in the forenoon of the 12th of October, 
 1915. 
 
 (Exact translation from the facsimile in French.) 
 From an article entitled 'The Last Days of Edith 
 Cavell." 
 
 It is my duty, here, to make some mention of 
 Monsieur Bancq, whose heroic figure merely 
 
148 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 served as a protest, by having him share the same 
 fate as the great EngUsh Martyred Nurse. The 
 only accusation that the Germans could bring 
 against him was that he had printed some articles 
 in 'Ta Libre Belgique." But I think he had never 
 sheltered a single Englishman in his own home. 
 The brave but unfortunate man left a wife and 
 two children, without any money to help them live 
 during those hard and trying times. 
 
 A few days after the execution, Mr. Heeger 
 received from the prison a bundle of clothes which 
 had belonged to our regretted mistress. In it 
 were found her blue jacket, one of the pockets of 
 which contained two sheets of paper. One of 
 them was her last letter to her nurses, and the 
 other consisted of notes and reminiscences of her 
 several trials. In the same package was found the 
 small sum of fifty francs. This humble amount 
 was all that she had left, after a life heroically 
 spent in servitude and hardships, in trials and in 
 dangers, a life courageously devoted to the relief 
 of the sick and the care of the dying. 
 
 The following is a translation of the last letter 
 oFTVIiss Cavell to her nurses, the original letter 
 being in the possession of "The Edith Cavell 
 Clinique," in Brussels. 
 
THE EXECUTION 149 
 
 St. Gilles Prison. 
 My Dear Nurses : — 
 
 This is a very sad moment for me, to write you 
 my last Goodbye. It makes me think of the 17th 
 of September which had closed my eight years as 
 the Directrice of our little cHnique. I was so happy 
 to be called to help in the work our Committee 
 started. 
 
 The first of October 1907, we had only four 
 young pupils, now there are many; I believe fifty 
 or sixty counting the trained nurses and the nurses 
 who have left the clinique. I have told you very 
 often of the early days ; of the difficulties we all had 
 in arranging for your hours of duty, your hours 
 of rest. Everything was new when this work was 
 started in Belgium. 
 
 But in a very short time things adjusted them- 
 selves. We secured some trained nurses for pri- 
 vate cases, some school nurses to work in the public 
 schools of Brussels, the St. Gilles Hospital, the 
 clinique of Dr. DePage, the Sanitarium for the 
 treatment of Tuberculosis in Buysinghen, the 
 clinique of Dr. Mayer and now many nurses will 
 be called to nurse the wounded soldiers on the battle- 
 fields. 
 
 When, this last year, our task seemed to diminish, 
 we can find the reason for it in the sad times in 
 which we lived, but, later in our happier days, our 
 work will grow faster in its mighty power. 
 
150 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 When I talk to you of the past, it means that it 
 is necessary sometimes to look back to the resolu- 
 tions we took, and our past experiences should guide 
 us in correcting future errors, that our progress 
 might be greater. In your new clinique building 
 you will have many more patients and you will find 
 there I am sure, everything necessary for their com- 
 fort as well as for your own also. 
 
 It makes me very sad to think that I had not 
 always more time to devote to each of you alone. 
 You all know that I had many occupations, but I 
 hope you will not forget the little talks we had each 
 evening. I told you that voluntary sacrifices would 
 make you happy; that your idea of duty before God 
 and yourself will give you greater support in the 
 sad moments of life and in the face of death. 
 
 There are perhaps two or three nurses who re- 
 member quite well the little conversations we had 
 together. These nurses should not forget this; 
 having had greater experience, I could see many 
 things clearer and I felt it my duty to show them 
 the right way, 
 
 A little word yet — mistrust evil speaking; may I 
 not say this to you? — because I loved my country 
 with my whole heart — I am here. I have seen, in the 
 past eight years and now also, many mistakes which 
 could have been avoided. Here and there, very 
 often, a whispered word, even though uttered with- 
 out bad intention, has many times ruined the good 
 
THE EXECUTION 151 
 
 name, the reputation and even the Hfe of somebody. 
 
 It is therefore necessary for my nurses to think 
 well before speaking and that you shall cultivate 
 in your life, more loyalty and a holy spirit. 
 
 If there is one nurse who has a grievance against 
 me, I beg that she will forgive me. I know that 
 sometimes I have been harsh — too harsh — but never 
 have I been voluntarily unjust and I loved all of 
 you, more than you will ever know. 
 
 My fondest wishes for all of you, my young 
 nurses, the nurses who have left the school as well 
 as the nurses who are still there, and I thank you 
 all very much for the kindness, gentleness and 
 courtesy which you have so often shown me. 
 Truly yours, 
 
 Your devoted Directrice, 
 Edith Cavell. 
 loth October, 1915. 
 
 After Madame had departed forever from our 
 midst, only a few nurses that had been with her 
 in the old place now remained in the New Clinique. 
 We would gather together each evening with our 
 minds constantly drawn towards the Northern 
 section of the town, where the fatal "Tir Na- 
 tional," with its mournful surroundings, was 
 located. We could see, in imagination, that lonely 
 grave behind the target-numbers of the rifle-range 
 where in winter the icy northern wind would blow, 
 
152 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 and the scorching sun beat mercilessly down in 
 summer. . . . 
 
 In these never-to-be-forgotten times of rugged 
 war and privation we five girls remained stead- 
 fastly at the New Clinique, of which our dear 
 Madame had laid the first stone and for the com- 
 pletion of which she had so ardently worked. . . . 
 
AFTER-WORD 
 
 In November, 191 8, some days after the Armi- 
 stice had been signed, the senior nurses of Edith 
 Cavell were called together in one of the parlors 
 of the new building, where three French Officers 
 were occupied writing. Without any warning, 
 they thrust two portraits before our startled 
 eyes. They were the photographs of Gaston 
 Quin, and the German who three years before 
 had been hidden in the old clinique, and known 
 to us as Mr. X, an Englishman. 
 
 We knew Quin at a glance, although his hair 
 had been shorn and he was dressed in prison garb. 
 
 These government officials had come to us for 
 information regarding Quin's doings while with 
 us. 
 
 We were so utterly confounded at what we saw, 
 and we spoke so mildly among ourselves about 
 him, that the detectives were greatly puzzled at 
 our attitude towards Quin. We burst into tears 
 at the thought that this man who had appeared 
 so innocently to help us, was the real author of all 
 153 
 
154 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 our misfortune. He it was who had helped to be- 
 tray Madame, and had brought trouble and 
 sadness into our young, happy lives ! 
 
 I cannot well describe what followed this sad 
 and sudden interview with the French law-officers. 
 The story of Quin has been in the newspapers all 
 over the world. As to Quin's ignoble friend, the 
 German whom we called Mr. X, he is far away, 
 probably dead — or murdered perhaps ! 
 
 In December, 1918, a small group of nurses 
 conducted by some French officers went for the 
 first time to view the humble grave of Miss Cavell. 
 We saw the place of her execution; the wooden 
 fence where Monsieur Bancq awaited his turn to 
 die. 
 
 We were struck by the forlorn aspect of the 
 sinister spot, the bleakness and loneliness of the 
 surrounding landscape. There, immediately be- 
 fore our eyes, in all its grim horror, stood the 
 fatal stone where Madame's frail form had been 
 supported upon a chair! On that chalky earth, 
 and mud, and rubble which marked her grave, 
 we reverently knelt together as on hallowed 
 ground. . . . 
 
 In March, 19 19, England claimed the body of 
 the martyred Nurse. Madame's sister and her 
 brother-in-law came to the Clinique to visit the 
 
AFTER-WORD 155 
 
 place she had founded, which now bears her name. 
 The King and Queen of the Belgians were present, 
 together with many other notable persons. A 
 solemn ceremony took place, during which a splen- 
 did oil-painting of Miss Cavell was placed upon 
 the class-room wall. It was an exact likeness of 
 her as she appeared during the early years of our 
 little school in the rue de la Culture. We nurses 
 felt sad at the sight of it. Our heavy hearts car- 
 ried in them the fond remembrance of this humble 
 woman as she was, when she bravely risked her 
 life and her health, mercifully conducting unfor- 
 tunate soldiers to safety. . . . 
 
 Those times are gone forever; our heroic Di- 
 rectrice's young nurses are now scattered far and 
 wide, some are dead, others are trying to forget 
 those terrible days of hardships and of dread. . . . 
 
 Little remains for me to add to this narrative. 
 Pauline is a nurse in an English family in Bel- 
 gium. Jose has disappeared. Gilles, our faithful 
 guide, went through it all unscathed. He had 
 joined the army after he left us. It was a pleasure 
 to see his honest face, with its laughing blue eyes, 
 radiant with joy at never having been caught by 
 the Boches! Jack, the dog, was some time in 
 Jose's house, but later, after Jose's departure, in 
 the house of the Princess DeCroy in France. 
 
156 WITH EDITH CAVELL IN BELGIUM 
 
 In 1920, while I was in Chicago, I read in the 
 papers of the miserable death of Von Sauber- 
 sweig. Had his mind been tormented by remorse 
 at the thought of the noble victim, whom he had 
 so brutally helped to put to death ? 
 
 Jacqueline Van Til. 
 
 White Plains, N. Y., April 20th, 1921. 
 
 THE END 
 
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