The specific charge against Miss Cavell was that she had helped English and French soldiers and Belgian young male civilians to cross the border into Holland. The direct evidence against her was in the form of letters intercepted by the Germans in which some of these soldiers and civilians writing from England thanked her for the aid she had given to them. Upon the farcical trial that resulted in the predetermined sentence of death, Miss Cavell courageously and freely admitted her assistance in the specified cases of escape. When she was asked why she did it, she declared her fear that if she had not done so the men would have been shot by the Germans. Her testimony was given in a clear conversational tone that betrayed no nervousness and her entire bearing was such as to win the sympathy of everyone except her stony-hearted judges. The German officers in command at Brussels made it impossible for Miss Cavell to see counsel before the trial, and a number of able lawyers who were solicited to undertake her defense declined to do so because of their fear of the Germans. [Illustration: NURSE EDITH CAVELL A victim of German savagery. An English lady whose life had been devoted to works of mercy, was shot after summary trial, at Brussels on October 11, 1915, for helping British and Belgian fugitives.] [Illustration: © _Underwood and Underwood, N. Y._ CAPTAIN CHARLES A. FRYATT The martyred British Merchant-Marine Captain, who was executed by the Germans because his ship attempted to sink a German submarine which attacked her.] Sentence was imposed upon her at five o’clock on the afternoon of October 11th. In accordance with its terms, she was taken from her cell and placed against a blank wall at two o’clock the following morning--the darkness of the hour vying with the blackness of the deed. Mr. Gahan, the English clergyman connected with the prison, was permitted to see her a short time before her murder. He gave her Holy Communion at ten o’clock on the night of October 11th. To him she declared she was happy in her contemplation of death; that she had no regret for what she had done; and that she was glad to die for her country. Brand Whitlock, American Minister to Belgium, and Hugh Gibson, Secretary of the Legation, did all that was humanly possible to avert the crime, but without avail. They were told that, “the Emperor himself could not intervene.” Defending the murder, Dr. Alfred Zimmermann, German Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, callously disposed of the matter thus: