Nurse Cavell

Levin Daily Chronicle, 15 August 1918, Page 1

Nurse Cavell

HER BETRAYER SHOT J31 r belc:an. Although much has been written with regard to the. murder of iN'urse Cavell, it is only now that the eii'camstance attending licr betrayal are published, together with the dramatic vengeance which overtook her betrayer. A vivid article in the "Cornhill Magazine" for .Tune tolls thc story. ''It soon became an open secret," says the writer, "that Miss Cavell had been apprehended and convicted through the denunciation of one whom she had befriended. His name was freely mentioned among the select -coterie of well-informed Belgians who assembled at various meeting places, in thc commune of Ixelles. Van dor was a young man of military age and bad habits, and the emoluments received for his work in one of the departments of public servicc of the city wore inadequate to gratify his expensive tastes and satiate his craving for pleasure. And so, when u tenacle of that octupus known as the German espionage system reached out and encircled him, it found an unresisting victim. "The Germans becamc aware of a leak across th 0 frontier through which filtered numerous young men capable, of bearing arms against them and

anxious to do so. Van der , affect- ' ing profound patriotism and professing dpep hatred for the violators of his j country, went to 'Miss Cavell and requested to be helped into Holland. He was introduced to Baucq (thc man who i was shot at the same time as Miss ! Cavell), and all the arrangements were ' made for his passage into the Nether- I lands.' 011 the eve of his departure, j when he had penetrated the secrets of ! the organisation, Van dor repaired • to the Kommandantur, and the next i day M'iss Cavell, Baucq, and Severin ! were arrested. Incidentally, that same J day Vaii der was buying wine for j two women in a cafe near the Placo do : Brouckere. ! THE AVENGER. - | "But, while the wave of horror and | loathing that swept the civilised world ' at the news of ' thc murder of Miss Cavell spent itself in screeching head- | lines and helplessly bitter comment, in I thc heart of Louis Bril it assumed a more concrete form. i "Louis was a mild, inoffensive-look-ing little chap, with pale blue eyes 1 and a shock of yellow hair. But thc thin ; lips that covered a rairll, strong mouth ! were hard and determined. An "arret!?' of Governor-General von Bissing, re-edited and re-published from time to time, decreed that any man found in th L . possession of jirearms would be punished with death. (Peine do mort.) "However, one night, while engaged in a game of chess with his friend, the schoolmaster, in thc little room that he occupied on the top lloor of an old building in Ixelles, where he kept out of sight of the Germans, Bril suddenly whipped out two automatic pistol's from his pockets—Browneengs, he called them —and said to his startled opponent:—

" 'One of tho pills (pruneau-x) in this Browneeng is for tho man who betrayed Miss Cavell, and I shall never rest until I get him."

THE BETRAYER'S FATE. "Days, weeks, passed, and the betrayer of the heroic English nurse continued to walk the streets of Brussels with apparent impunity. Promptly at the stroke of six Van der would emerge from the office 011 the Rue du Trone, where lid performed his responsible duties. Bill, crouching 111 the shadow 011 the other side of the street, would fall into step, and would not allow his quarry to get out of sight as the latter went about liis disreputable work. Bril, like Nemesis, on his trail folio wed. "About eleven one evening two 'polizeis' patrolling their beat cainc lumbering up a lonely street leading to the .Ohaussee do Haeclit, in Scliaarbeck, a suburb of Brussels . It was a cold, rainy, dark night, and the 'polizeis' did not notice an obstruction 011 the sidewalk until one of them stumbled upon it. With an impatient oath he bent and picked up the body of a man. It was,still warm, and blood was trickling from a wound above the left temple, while the clothing 011 the left, side of the body was saturated with blood that had not yet had time to coagulate. One bullet had gone through the heart and another had traversed the brain. It was the body of Van der . "There was no doubt that more than a hundred persons in Brussels among Ihem at least ten members of the, Belgian I'olice Force, knew, who had committed this murder, or rather who had executed this sentence. But weeks went on, and no arrest was made, although nearly everybody one met was aware of the identity of the executioner. And no surprise was felt when one day a notice was posted by the Germans to tin? effect that, 'Owing to the apathy displayed by the Belgian I'olice in the performance of their duties in connection with the apprehension of the murderer of' Schaarbeck, ihe ease had been taken out of their hands, and would be handled by the German military police.' A reward of one thousand marks was offered to anyone denouncing the murderer, aiid a threat of death was held over the head of \\ h 1»n 1 suever should harbour him. m;.\TEn i.iice a wild beast. '' Hunted like a wild beast, Bril for more than a month managed to elude the vigilance of his pursuers by remaining indoors during the day and coming out for a few minutes at night to purchase the food necessary for his subsistence. "One afternoon the Germans, acting apparently under precise instructions and with full knowledge as to his whereabouts, entirely surrounded the block in which the room occupied by Bril was to be found. "Bril was warned in time and clambered to the roof, with two plain clothes men in pursuit and blazing away at liini. A f I (■ 1: a run of a few hundred fee! over root's,, he reached Ihe edge of one overlooking a lane about 12 feet wide, and without hesitating the fugitive leaped across it. landed safely 011 another house a storey loWer, and eluded his pursuers, wiio looked about, hesitated, consulted one another, and could not muster up sufficient courage to take the plunge. Bril made his way to the street and was gone. "He took refuge at Vilvorde (a 1 town about ten kilometres from Brus-

scls), and liad nearly completed arrangements for a dash across the deathdealing "wires into Holland—was to have left on the following day in fact— when ho returned to Brussels to thank that man "u'lio had made it possible liim to escape, fell into a trap, and was arrested. Ho disappeared behind the sombrn walls of the Konimandantur au secret." Bril ivas siiot by the Gcrmtwis, having by liis rccklcss heroism blo'tted out a record of mean and contcnjpt'iblo treachery from th c splendid jjages of Belgian history.