Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-11-15
Continued from Last Issue)
The Case of Louis Rrill

AaAA Army llG ANAN al ~ 49,
Sian name OF which ne had proved
himself so unworthy as 10 sell MINI
self as a spy TO the Germans. IL
was he, 80 people said, VINO mad be-
trayed Hiss LaVell. one morning
his body was found lying IN the
street with a bullet in his heart.
over the deed there hung the myS-
terry OF a profound ana impenetraDle
silence. The Germans were plqued
because the aSSaSsins were not at
once discovered and there were
threats of filming the city 9OO,OOO
marks If justice was not immediate
IL done. But no Belgian could be
found. il seemed, who knew any
thing about the affair, and no one,
in speaking of 1t, seemed 10 eNlnce
the horror and regret that such
deed should excite, though there
was, in the gossips of the town,
universal sympathy for the old OIL
Ger. the father of the recreant
youth who had brought such shame
upon his house.
Louis Brill was a waiter in res
taurant in Brussels and he had Deen
tried and condemned TO death that
very day for having shot down
that recreant son of the retired
army officer. who was said TO nave
BETRAYED Miss Cavell. The swarm
ing spies and the secret agents
with ineXorable patience, had
urowled the mysterious underworld
of Brussels until they had found
the man who shot the traitor down
in the street, and now he, too, was
to die. l cannot pretend TO know
the whole story; II VIII be told
some DAY, l suppose, with many an.
other like il. when the history OF
those dark times is all revealed:
Perhaps il was but an element OF
the rOmanticism in which, since
war itself is so wholly an express
ssw.#f saag a EzFn
war must be invested, that llnked
the dark event TO the immortal
name of the English nurse. There
were those who said that Brill ana
not shoot him to avenge MISS CaNell.
but to avenge himself and his com,
rades when the recreant Belgian had
offered TO guide parties OF young
Belgians who wished to le5ve the
country and Turing them thus into
his trap had led them to the Hol-
land border, there miserahly TO be
tray them 10 the Germans. lie
may in this way have learned OF tns
group with which Miss Cavell was
associated: I do not know; but IL
was for his treachery in one or the
other instances that Brill dogged
him, patiently, remorselessly, track
ing him down until the night when,
as he stepped from ms own Hoop
into the street, Brill shot him down
and left his body lying there on
the sidewalk. .-
been the hunter Brill became the
hunted. and for weeks eluded the
herman spies and German port
Gei." until he, too. was' at last track
ed down and captured.
The man who came to me that
night wished to know how 10 pre-
sent the "recours en- grace (peu-
ton for pardOnl that Brilfs motneI
had signed; and L could tell MN 70
whom TO present il at any rate;
IL had no effect, of course, ana
iBrilI- was shot the next morning,
as we We're Informed by the usual
proclamation.
In the letter that Miss Caveh
wrote TO her nurses there Is
te. erence to the evil of gossip Whlcn
* of immense significance; not
only were happiness and reputa-
lions destroyed by idle words, she
says, but lie itself sacrlnced. II
Is not for me or any one 10 pene'
trate the sacred precincts OF thS
brave soul of Edith Cavell in that
solemn hour, but the references
may have been in part at least due
10 the fact that she found herselI
condemned to death because of some
unrestrained and indiscreeI tongues
that had betrayed her.
lit is no small prudence to keep
silence in an evil time" she wrote
in her copy of the Imitation-the
most pathetic, perhaps, or all the
lines she wrote. and the nearest
expression to anything like re-
preach that she ever made.
zs4AaAaA A44kSr
For us at the American legation
there Was a sequeI week laIer.
1 had had GibsOns and de LeNal
reports sent over to the American
emDassy at London and there they
were turned over 10 our ambassador
to the foreign ONCE and given out
to the press for publication. They
were published far and wlde-and
in consequence the Rotterdamscne
COurant and the other Dutch news
papers were not allowed on sale In
brussels that next day. The clos
ing of the frontier to newspapers
was an invariable sign, well known
in Brussels. that the Germans were
not satisfied with the state or
things, and we soon heard that the
authorities were very angry ana
had even intimated that the COVER
nor general might have TO send all
the diplomats away IN consequence"
Ii was a menace that had few ter
rors for us. Our situation was not
enViable-but had the Germans eX-
pected TO take a defenseless woman
out in the night and muTder her and
then hope to escape the moral con-
sequences? 1t was, of course. the
policy of terrorization transferred
to the diplomatic field: they were
trying TO divert attention from
their own responsibility by COM
planning Of US.
At any rate the Germans had a
copy OF the London Times over at
the POlitsche Abteilung with our
reports spread out in full through
ali its broad columns, and were
greatly agitated; Even little Con-
rad. much moved, had exclaimed to
Villalobar:
They've put me in it," "All
right" said The marquis, you've
become one of the big bonnets OF
Europe"
Then we heard that the German
rage was especially directed against
de LeyaI Tor having made a report
at all, and that they threatened
to send him to a concentration
camp in Germany. That was on sat
urday. the 23d. i was convalescing;
my physician had told me that 1
might 20 TO work again and L had
made an appointment to see the
Baron Won der Lancken on Monday
to discuss Ia reprise du travail, an
appointment that had been post
poned several times already Ds
my illness. 1t was raining heavily
when Monday came and DR.. Oars
Chied came to give me a "piqure,'
and TO tell me not to go out; but i
went.
The Baron Won de Lancken, pink
from his morning ride. booted. with
his iron cross and other ribbons,
the white cross of st. John on his
side. and a large brief under his
arm, received me with a dark face,
asked me upstairs TO his little
wOrlroon. where fire was burn