lO 
LAND & WATER 
September 27 1917 
court pass the sentence of death upon Miss Cavell and eight 
other prisoners among the thirty-hve brought to trial. 
I'pon ascertaining these facts Maitre de Leval called at the 
Political Department and asked that, the trial having taken 
place, permission he granted him to see Miss Cavell in person 
as there could be no further objection to consultation. Herr 
Conrad, an official of the Political Department, who received 
Maitre de Leval, stated that he would make enquiry of the 
court and communicate with him later. 
The foregoing are the developments up to Sunday night, 
, October lotli. Subsequent developments are shown by the 
following extracts from a journal made at the time. 
Extracts from My Journal 
Priissi'la, Octobsr 12///, 1915. — When I came in yesterday 
morning I found information \vhich seemed to confirm previous 
nports. that Miss Cavell's trial had been concluded on Saturday 
afternoon and tliat the prosecution had asked that the death 
sentence Ije imposed. Monsiei^r de I.evai promptly called 
up the Political Department on tlie telephone and talked to Con- 
lad. repeating our previous requests that he be authorised to 
see Miss Cavell in prison. He also asked that Mr. Gahan, the 
English chaplain, lie permitted to visit her. Conrad replied 
tliat it had been' decided that Mr. Gahan could not see her, 
but that she could see any of the three Protestant clergymen 
(Germans) attached to the prison ; that de Leval could not see 
fier imtil the judgment was pronoiuiced and signed. He said 
that as yet no sentence had been pronounced and that there 
would probably lie a delay of a day or two before a deci- 
sion was reached. He stated that" even if the judgment 
of the Court had been given it would have no effect until it had 
Ijeen conlirmed by tjie Governor, who was absent from 
Brussels and would not return for two or possibly three days. 
We asked Conrad to inform the Legation immediately upon 
the contirmation of the sentence in order that steps m'ight be 
taken to secure a pardon if the judgment really proved to be 
one of capital punishment. Conrad said that he had no 
information to the effect that the Court had acceded to the 
request for the death sentence, but promised to keep us in- 
formed. 
Germans' Lymg Promise 
Despite the promise of the German autliorities to keep us 
fully posted, we were nervous and apprehensive ; and re- 
mained at the Legatioji all day, making repeated enquiry by 
telephone to It^rn whether a decision had been reached. 
On each of these occasions the Political Department renewed 
the assurance that we would ]x informed as soon as there 
was any news. In order to be prepared for every even- 
tuality, we drew up a petition for clemency addressed to tlie 
Govemor-Gen.'ral. and a covering note addressed to Baron 
von der Lancken in order that they might be presented with- 
out loss of time in case of urgent need. 
A number of people had been arrested and tried for the 
nftence of helping men to cross the frontier to Holland, but the 
d.-ath sentence had never been inflicted. The usual thing was 
to give a sentence of imprisonment in Germany. The of- 
ficials at the Political JJepartnjent professed to be sceptical 
as to the reported intention of the Court to inflict the death 
sentence, and led us to tliink that nothing of the sort need be 
apprehended. 
None the less we were haunted bv a feeling of impending 
horror that we could not sliake off. 'l had planned to ride in 
the afternoon, but when my horse was brought around I 
had it sent away and stayed near the telephone. Late in the 
afternoon Leval succeeded in geting into communication 
with a lawyer interested in one of the accused. He said that 
the German Kommandantur had informed him that judg- 
ment would Ik passed the next morning, Tuesday. He 
was worried as to what was in store for the prisoners and said 
lie feared the Court would be very severe. 
At 6.20 I had Topping (clerk of the Legation) telephone 
t-onrad again. ( )nce more we had tl>e most definite assurances 
that nothing had happened, and a somewhat weary renewal 
ot the promise that we should have immediate information 
wlien sentence was pronounced.* 
At 8.30 I had just gone home when Leval came for me in 
my car saying that he had come to report that Miss Cavell 
was to be sliot in the course of the night. We could hardly 
credit this ; but as our informant was so positive and in-^isted 
so earnestly, we set off to sec what could b.- done. ' 
Leval had already seen the IVIinister, who was ill in bed 
and brought me his instructions to find von der Lancken 
present the appeal for clemency and press for a favourable 
decision. In order to add weight to our representations I was 
=M 'T^'^K*""^ ^"^^ °"^ ^°^'' •■*'*'* **''"*7 minutes after the sentence had 
actually been pronounced. There U no need for comment. 
to seek out the Spanish Minister to get him to go with us and 
join in our appeal. I found him dining at Baron Lambert's, 
and on explaining the case to him he willingly agreed to 
come. 
How Lancken Spent the Evening 
When we get to the Political Department we found tliat 
Baron von der Lancken and all the members of his staff 
had gone out to spend the evening at one of the disreputable 
little theatres that have sprung up here for the entertain- 
ment of the Germans. At first I was unable to find where 
he had gone, as the orderly on duty evidently had orders not 
to- tell, but by dint of some blustering and impressing on him 
the fact that Lancken would have cause to regret not ha\-ing 
seen us, he agreed to have him notified. I put the orderly 
into the motor and sent him off. The Marquis de Villalobar, 
Leval and I settled down to wait, and we waited long, for Lanc- 
ken, evidently knowing the purpose of our visit, declined to 
budge until the end of an act that seemed to appeal to him par- 
ticularly. He came in about 10.30, followed shortly by Count 
Harrach and Baron von Falkenhausen, members of his 
staff. 
I briefly explained the situation as we understood it and 
presented the note from the Minister transmitting the appeal 
for clemency. Lancken read the note aloud in our presence, 
showing no feeling aside from cynical annoyance at something 
—probably our having discovered the intentions of the German 
authorities. 
When he had finished reading the note Lancken said that he 
knew nothing of the case, but was sure in any event that no 
sentence would be executed so soon as we had said. He 
manifested some surprise, not to say annoyance, that we 
should give credence to any report in regard to the case which 
did not come from his Department, that being the only oflicial 
channel. Leval and I insisted, however, that we had reason 
to believe our reports were correct and urged him to make 
inquiries. He then tried to find out the exact source of our in- 
formation, and became painfully insistent. I did not propose 
however, to enlighten him on this point and said that f did not 
feel at liberty to divulge our source of information. 
Lancken then became persuasive— said that it was most 
improbable that any sentence had been pronounced ; that 
even if it had, it could not be put into effect within so short 
a time, and that in any event all Gov^'rnment Offices wer3 
closed and that it was impossible for him to take any action 
before morning. He suggested that we all go home " reason- 
ably," sleep quietly and come back in the morning to talk 
about the case. It was very clear that if the facts were as 
we believed them to be, the "next morning would be too late ; 
and we pressed for immediate inquiry. . I had to be rather 
insistent on this point, and de Leval, inhis anxiety, became so 
emphatic that I feared he might bring down the wrath of the 
Germans on his own head and tried to quiet him. There was 
something splendid about the way Leval, a Belgian subject 
with nothing to gain and everything to lose, stood up for 
what he believed to be right and chivalrous, regardless of 
consequences. 
Finally, Lancken agreed to ehquire as to the facts, tele- 
phoned from his office to the presiding judge of the court-mar- 
tial, and returned in a sliort time to say that sentence had indeed 
been passed, and that Miss Cavell was to be shot during tlie 
night. 
Plea for Clemency 
We then presented with all the earnestness at our com- 
mand the plea for clemency. 
We pointed out to Lancken that Miss Cavell's offences were 
a matter of the past ; that she herself had ^en in prison for 
some weeks, thus effectually ending her power for harm ; 
that there was nothing to be gained by shooting her, and on the 
contrary this would do Germany much more harm than good 
and England much more good than harm. We pointed 
out to him that the whole case was a very bad one from 
Germany's point of view; that the sentence of death had 
heretofore been imposed only for cases of espionage and that 
Miss Cavell was not even accused by the German authorities 
of anything so sjrious. We reminded him that Miss CaveU 
as dvredress of a large nursing home had since the beginning 
the war cared lor large numbers of German soldiers in a wa\ 
that should make her life sacred to them. I further called 
his attention to the manifest failure of the Political Department 
to comply with its repeated promises to keep us informed 
as to the progress of the trial and the passing of the sen- 
tence. The deliberate policy of subterfuge and prevarica- 
tion by which they had sought to deceive us as to the progress 
of the case was so raw as to require little comment. W'e 
all pointed out to Lancken the horror of shooting a woman, 
no matter what her offence; and endeavoured to impress 
upon him the frightful effect that such an execution would 
