asters, saved her existence, her treasures, and the life
of her children, but she preferred her honor._"

Not long after this second protest, M. Leon Theodor was arrested,
deported to Germany and if now living, is suffering imprisonment for the
offense of defending the oppressed civilian population from a system of
espionage, drumhead courts-martial and secret executions, which in their
malignity should excite the professional jealousy of Danton, Marat and
Robespierre. It was in this manner that the lofty promise of the German
Chancellor that his country would make good the wrong done to Belgium
has been kept.

Such was the condition of affairs in Belgium when Edith Cavell was
arrested on August 5th, 1915.

About the same time some thirty-five other prisoners were similarly
arrested by the military authorities, _two-thirds of whom were women_.

The arrest was evidently a secret one for it is obvious that for a time
Miss Cavell's friends knew nothing of her whereabouts. Even the American
Legation, which had assumed the care of British citizens in Belgium,
apparently knew nothing of Miss Cavell's whereabouts until it learned
after a second inquiry the fact of her arrest and the place of her
imprisonment from the German Civil Governor of Belgium on September
12th, 1915.

As Miss Cavell was a well-known personage in Brussels, it is altogether
unlikely that the fact of her arrest and imprisonment would have been
unknown to the American Legation in Brussels if the fact of her arrest
had been a matter of public information on August 5th or shortly
thereafter. In other words, if the arrest had been an open and notorious
one, it seems to me unlikely that the American Embassy would have been
wholly without information on the subject and when the friends of Miss
Cavell found an opportunity to send some information as to her
disappearance to the British Foreign Office, it seems unlikely that they
would not have given more specific details.

Evidently some information had reached the Foreign Office as to Miss
Cavell's disappearance, for on August 26th Sir Edward Grey requested the
American Ambassador in London to ascertain through the American Legation
in Brussels whether it was true that Miss Cavell had been arrested, and
it seems clear from the diplomatic correspondence that the American
Legation at Brussels knew nothing of the matter until it received this
inquiry from the American Ambassador in London. The fact of her