se of duty, she
exchanged the security of her native country for her post of danger in
Brussels. "My duty is there," she said simply.

She reached Brussels in August, 1914, and at once commenced her
humanitarian work. When the German army entered the gates of Brussels,
she called upon Governor von Luttwitz and placed her staff of nurses at
the services of the wounded under whatever flag they had fought. The
services which she and her staff of nurses rendered many a wounded and
dying German should have earned for her the generous consideration of
the invader.

But early in these ministrations of mercy she was obliged by the noblest
of humanitarian motives to antagonize the German invaders. Governor von
Luttwitz demanded of her that all nurses should give formal
undertakings, when treating wounded French or Belgian soldiers, to act
as jailers to their patients, but Miss Cavell answered this unreasonable
demand by simply saying: "We are prepared to do all that we can to help
wounded soldiers to recover, but to be their jailers--never."

On another occasion, when appealing to a German Brigadier-General on
behalf of some homeless women and children, the Prussian martinet--half
pedant and half poltroon--answered her with a quotation from Nietzsche
to the effect that "Pity is a waste of feeling--a moral parasite
injurious to the health." She early felt the cruel and iron will of the
invader, but, nothing daunted, she proceeded in the arduous work,
supervised the work of three hospitals, gave six lectures on nursing a
week and responded to many urgent appeals of individuals who were in
need of immediate relief. "Others she saved, herself she could not
save."

When one of her associates, Miss Mary Boyle O'Reilly, who has recently
contributed a moving account of Miss Cavell's work, was expelled from
Belgium, she begged Miss Cavell to take the opportunity, while it
presented itself, to leave that land of horror, and Miss Cavell, with
characteristic bravery, replied smilingly: "Impossible, my friend, my
duty is here."

It was undoubtedly in connection with this humanitarian work that she
violated the German military law by giving refuge to fugitive French and
Belgian soldiers until such time as they could escape across the
frontier to Holland. For this she suffered the penalty of death, and the
validity of this sentence, even under Prussian military law, I will
discuss later. It is enough to say that no instinct is so natural