Her Duty to Her Country
In the retreat of the French and British armies in late summer of 1914 a number of English and French soldiers cut off from their companies hid themselves in the woods, in trenches and in deserted houses, hoping to escape capture. Many were caught, and some of them were summarily shot. Others were sheltered and protected by farmers who provided them with civilian clothes and gave them employment until they could find means of escape into Holland. Similarly Belgian soldiers were given the chance to evade the Germans; but those who were captured were, in many instances if not usually, shot. It was because of this severity in the treatment of captured men that Miss Cavell the more readily yielded to her natural inclinations to aid the unfortunate who sought her help. That was her statement to the military court before which she was arraigned. She was asked why she had helped English soldiers to escape; she replied firmly that it was because she believed that if she had not done so the Germans would have shot them and that she thought she only did her duty to her country in trying to save men’s lives. Her prominence and her fame as nurse and comforter to the wounded attracted the soldiers to her as a sympathetic woman disposed to help, and it is not denied that she did help many. The Germans charged that she had assisted one hundred and thirty to get out of Belgium.