Her success as a nurse, both in Brussels and the slums of London, owed three-parts of its efficacy to her overflowing sympathy. “It was her gentle way,” said an old patient, “that did most to make me well again; I felt she was a minister of God working for my good.” And there are wounded British soldiers who have pressed the doctors to send them back quickly to the firing line. “We will go back willingly,” they say, “to avenge this great woman’s death.” [Illustration: [_Daily Mirror Photograph._ THE REV. FREDERICK CAVELL, FATHER OF NURSE CAVELL.] [Illustration: [_Daily Mirror Photograph._ MRS. CAVELL, MOTHER OF NURSE CAVELL.] Every holiday in England was spent with the aged mother, who looked forward to these meetings as much as the daughter. Without warning, the war broke into the last of these holidays in the full summer of 1914. Edith Cavell made her mind up promptly. Her holiday was not yet over, but she hurried back at once. “My duty is out there,” she said; “I shall be wanted.” CHAPTER V. THE COMING OF THE GERMANS. We reach now the last year of Edith Cavell’s life, for which all the others had been a preparation. When she arrived in Brussels, the Germans were shelling Liége. The gallant little Belgium Army stood drawn up across the path of the invaders. It was believed that the French and British would soon arrive to drive the Germans back. The Belgian Government was still in Brussels. Cheery Burgomaster Max kept order with his Civic Guard. In the autumn of 1915 we are all wiser. Miss Cavell has herself described, in an article sent home to the _Nursing Mirror_, how the bitter truth came home to Brussels:-- Brussels lay that evening [August 20th] breathless with anxiety. News came that the Belgians, worn out and weary, were unable to hold back the oncoming host who might be with us that night. Still we clung to the hope that the English Army was between us and the unseen peril.... In the evening came the news that the enemy were at the gates. At midnight bugles were blowing, summoning the Civic Guard to lay down their arms and leave the city. Many people were up through the dark hours, and all doors and windows were tightly shut. As we went to bed our only consolation was that in God’s good time right and justice must prevail. The sympathies of Nurse Cavell were all with the Belgians and their Allies. How could it be otherwise? Yet, when the Germans came she spoke with sympathy of the tired and footsore men in the enemy’s host:-- On August 21st [she wrote] many more troops came through; from our road we could see the long procession, and when the halt was called at midday and carts came up with supplies some were too weary to eat, and slept on the pavement of the street.