With this letter and a plea for clemency addressed to the
Governor-General, M. de Leval and Mr. Hugh Gibson, First Secretary of
the Legation, went to the Marquis de Villalobar, the Spanish Minister,
to beg his coöperation. He most heartily joined them and the three went
to the house of the Civil Governor. Mr. Gibson reported the interview
and its negative results to the American Minister:
“Baron von der Lancken and all the members of his staff were absent
for the evening. We sent a messenger to ask that he return at once
to see us in regard to a matter of utmost urgency. A little after 10
o’clock he arrived, followed shortly after by Count Harrach and Herr
von Falkenhausen, members of his staff. The circumstances of the case
were explained to him and your note presented, and he read it aloud
in our presence. He expressed disbelief in the report that sentence
had actually been passed, and manifested some surprise that we should
give credence to any report not emanating from official sources. He
was quite insistent on knowing the exact source of our information,
but this I did not feel at liberty to communicate to him. Baron von
der Lancken stated that it was quite improbable that sentence had been
pronounced, that even if so, it would not be executed within so short
a time, and that in any event it would be quite impossible to take
any action before morning. It was, of course, pointed out to him that
if the facts were as we believed them to be, action would be useless
unless taken at once. We urged him to ascertain the facts immediately,
and this, after some hesitancy, he agreed to do.
“He telephoned to the presiding judge of the court-martial and
returned in a short time to say that the facts were as we had
represented them, and that it was intended to carry out the sentence
before morning. We then presented, as earnestly as possible, your
plea for delay. So far as I am able to judge, we neglected to present
no phase of the matter which might have had any effect, emphasizing
the horror of executing a woman, no matter what her offense, pointing
out that the death sentence had heretofore been imposed only for
actual cases of espionage and that Miss Cavell was not even accused
by the German authorities of anything so serious. I further called
attention to the failure to comply with Mr. Conrad’s promise to inform
the Legation of the sentence. I urged that inasmuch as the offences
charged against Miss Cavell were long since accomplished, and that as
she had been for some weeks in prison, a delay in carrying out the
sentence could entail no danger to the German cause. I even went so
far as to point out the fearful effect of a summary execution of this
sort upon public opinion, both here and abroad, and, although I had no
authority for doing so, called attention to the possibility that it
might bring about reprisals.