Forthwith Mr. Gibson and M. de Leval sought out the Marquis de Villalobar, the Spanish Ambassador, and together the anxious trio proceeded to the house of Baron von der Lancken. Not only was the Baron not at home, but no member of his staff was in attendance, which suggests even to the most charitable chronicler that the visit had been anticipated. An urgent message was sent after the Baron, with the result that he returned home a little after ten o'clock, and was shortly followed by two members of his staff. When the circumstances necessitating the visit were explained to Baron von der Lancken, he professed to disbelieve that the death sentence had been passed, and asserted that in any case there would be no execution that night, and that the matter would lose nothing by waiting until the morning. But the neutral diplomatists were too hot upon the trail of German trickery and prevarication to permit of the desired procrastination; they were ambassadors in mercy rather than mere politics, and they firmly insisted upon the Baron instituting immediate inquiries. He retired to engage in telephonic communication with the presiding judge of the court-martial, doubtless not to seek for information, but to condole with each other upon the disclosure of their cunning scheme to these pestering neutrals, whose interference they had exercised their ingenuity to avoid. Shortly the Baron returned and admitted to his visitors that their information was correct, whereupon Mr. Gibson presented the letters appealing for delay in execution of the sentence, and at the same time he verbally emphasized every conceivable point that might assist to gain even the most temporary respite; and in these representations the Spanish Minister lent all the support at his command. Baron von der Lancken informed them that in these matters the supreme authority was the Military Governor; that the Governor-General had no authority to intervene; and that appeal could be carried only to the Emperor, and only in the event of the Military Governor exercising his discretionary power to accept an appeal for clemency. Upon the urgent appeal of the neutral diplomatists Baron von der Lancken agreed to speak to the Military Governor on the telephone. He was absent half an hour, and upon his return stated that he had been to confer personally with the Military Governor, who declared that the sentence upon Miss Cavell was the result of 'mature deliberation,' and that the circumstances in her case rendered 'the infliction of the death penalty imperative.'