This fact must have impressed the Military Court, for according to the same informant it did not at once agree upon either the verdict of "Guilty" or the judgment of death, and it is stated that the Judges would not have sentenced her to death if the fugitive soldiers, who had crossed into Holland, had not subsequently arrived in England. But it will astound any lawyer to learn that the subsequent escape of these same prisoners from Holland to England could be reasonably regarded as a guidance by Miss Cavell of these soldiers _to England_. In all probability Miss Cavell had little or nothing to do with these soldiers after they left Brussels, but even assuming that she provided the means and gave the directions for their escape across the frontier between Belgium and Holland, that was "the head and front of her offending," and it does not come within the law under which she was sentenced to death. When she was asked by her Judges as to her reasons for sheltering these fugitives, "she replied that she thought that if she had not done so _they would have been shot by the Germans_ and that therefore she thought she only did her duty to her country in saving their lives." This fairly states what she did, and perhaps this brave and frank reply caused her death. She gave a temporary shelter to men who were in danger of death, and, as previously stated, in so doing yielded to a humanitarian impulse which all civilized nations have recognized as worthy of the most lenient treatment. When, therefore, Herr Dr. Albert Zimmermann, speaking for the German Foreign Office, expressed its "surprise" that Miss Cavell's execution should "have caused a sensation," it is well to remind Dr. Zimmermann that to offer a refuge to the fugitive is an impulse of humanity. It is likely that these soldiers were her wounded patients; at all events, they had found a refuge in her hospital. They claimed the protection of her roof and she gave it to them. In the first act of Walkyrie--which is not overburdened with the atmosphere of morality--even the black-hearted Hunding says to his blood-enemy, "Heilig ist mein herd; Heilig sei dir mein haus." (Holy is my hearth! Holy will be to them my house!)