The basest of the spies in the German Service of whom there is any
account probably was Gaston Quien, the betrayer of Edith Cavell. He was
a degraded moral type, and had been convicted of various minor offenses
before the war, being a “bad citizen.” He was at St. Quentin when the
Germans arrived there, and according to testimony he at once placed
himself on familiar terms with them. He was nicknamed “Doublemetre”
(Two-yarder) because of his great stature. The Germans saw that they
could make use of him, and proceeded to do so.
The circumstances of his employment were about as follows:
In 1915 the German commanders in Northern France and Belgium were
angered at the fact that hundreds of Belgian and Allied soldiers hidden
in various villages were eventually smuggled through the lines into
Holland or France by an organization known to have its headquarters in
Brussels.
[Illustration: A Loan Poster]
Quien opportunely arrived in Brussels and posed as an Allied aviator
who had been obliged to alight behind the German lines, and, after
burning his plane, had evaded capture. Along with several French
soldiers, he was hidden for a time at the château of Prince and
Princess Crouy. There Louise Thuliez, the school teacher decorated
early in 1919 with the Legion of Honor, secretly passed him on to
Brussels, by way of Mons. At Brussels he was lodged for several days
in Miss Cavell’s nursery. Finally an engineer named Capiau and Mme.
Bodart accompanied him and a group of Allied soldiers to the Dutch
frontier, where, by payment of $15 a head to smugglers, they were
conducted into Dutch territory.
Once at The Hague, Quien made no further effort to get into France.
Instead, he returned to Brussels and betrayed to the Germans the entire
organization for helping Allied soldiers out of Belgium.
Miss Cavell was tried and executed soon afterward. Miss Thuliez also
was sentenced to death, but pardoned. Princess Crouy, Mme. Bodart and
Capiau were sentenced to twelve years at hard labor. An architect named
Bauco, also betrayed by Quien, was shot at the same time Miss Cavell
met her fate. Quien continued in the employ of the Germans in various
capacities, finally establishing himself in Interlaken, where he worked
with their most noted spies. After the armistice he was arrested and
tried for treason in a Belgian court. He was found guilty, but was not
executed, pending an appeal.