That was von Bissing’s self-justification. Baron von der Lancken’s plea was more _naïve_. As the execution was purely a military affair, he, the Civil Governor, did not interfere. “It would have been a breach of etiquette if he had done so!” It counted nothing with these official exponents of Kultur that Miss Cavell had been the compassionate and skillful nurse of numbers of wounded German soldiers in the Brussels hospitals. That offered them no reason for treating her with leniency. [Illustration: _Drawn by Joseph Cummings Chase._ 1st Lieut. George W. Puryear The first American officer to escape from a German prison. While making his escape he was shot at six times, but by running directly at the guard who was shooting at him, and thus confusing his aim, he avoided being hit. He was captured July 26, 1918, and reached Switzerland, after swimming the Rhine.] [Illustration: © _Underwood and Underwood._ Memorial in Norwich, England, Dedicated to Edith Cavell] It was the worse for Germany that etiquette and native savagery put clemency aside in this case. As the London _Times_ declared, “The late Miss Cavell’s death came like a trumpet call to the British nation. It showed once again the real character of the enemy this country is fighting. To the soldiers in Flanders it gave a fresh battle-cry and to civilians at home it served to re-emphasize the need of greater effort and great sacrifice. Before leaping for the trenches for a charge the soldiers shouted: ‘For Miss Cavell.’” The King and Queen of England wrote to the aged mother of Miss Cavell expressing their sympathy with her and their horror of the deed that took her daughter from her. There was a great memorial service in St. Paul’s, the church itself and the churchyard around it being crowded by every class. The nation was thrilled. The French also made the cause their own. From Allies and neutrals the world over came messages of sympathy and indignation. Nowhere, perhaps, was the emotion deeper than in the United States. The American people were aroused in many ways. Their national dignity was offended, because their representatives had been slighted when attempting to save the Englishwoman. But this resentment counted for little as compared with the genuine wrath at an act of barbarous inhumanity to a woman.