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.