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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 79283 ***
+
+[Illustration: Mata Hari]
+
+
+
+
+                               MATA HARI
+                          _Courtesan and Spy_
+
+
+                                   By
+                      MAJOR THOMAS COULSON, O.B.E.
+
+[Illustration: Emblem showing a laurel wreath surrounding a flaming
+torch held upright between two outstretched hands, with Greek text
+inside the wreath.]
+
+                      HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS
+                         _New York and London_
+                                  1930
+
+
+                               MATA HARI
+                _Copyright, 1930, by Harper & Brothers_
+                       _Printed in the U. S. A._
+                            SEVENTH PRINTING
+                            EIGHTH PRINTING
+
+                                  G-E
+
+               _Illustrations are from the collection of
+                          W. Adolphe Roberts_
+
+
+                                  _To
+                                MITSOU_
+
+
+
+
+                               _Preface_
+
+
+The romantic adventures of Mata Hari stirred a certain section of public
+opinion to a sympathy rarely accorded to spies. The men and women of
+that profession are usually the object of general execration from their
+enemies and a somewhat furtive admiration from others who extract
+pleasure or consolation from the pursuit of danger, where the degree and
+not the motive is the standard. Why, then, should this vaudeville “star”
+have excited a contrary emotion? Why should she have as defenders:
+princes, statesmen, savants, and artists, as well as genial
+_boulevardiers_ who, if lacking in a supersensitive morality, are
+without doubt loyal citizens of the nation to which Mata Hari did
+incalculable harm?
+
+In the first place, Mata Hari was a woman of unusual beauty, moving
+within a veil of sensual mysticism; in the second place, her chosen
+forum was Paris. The attention she had drawn as an artist and her subtle
+personality account for much of the interest she aroused. The fact that
+a Frenchman is never too fat, too old, or too ugly to be interested in a
+pretty (and frail) woman supplies the remainder of the answer to the
+problem. The average woman spy, outside of the popular romances, is not
+a lovable creature. But, endowed with a romantic nature, a rich
+imagination, a flair for the sensational, the sentimental, and the
+poetic, preaching a gospel of love which had to be communicated in
+whispered confidences, has this woman not all the characteristics of an
+ideal heroine for a successful novel?
+
+Since the life and death of Mata Hari have become the common property of
+writers for the stage and more particularly for the screen, her
+fascinating history as a super-spy, dancer, courtesan, and
+high-priestess of a lascivious love cult with its wealth of drama,
+romance, and bitter tragedy, has been submerged beneath a torrent of
+highly imaginative literature which almost completely obscures the
+truth. No spy story is too absurd to be associated with her name; no
+deep-rooted intrigue too treacherous but that it becomes the more
+sinister by being made to revolve about her person. For the most part
+these flights of the artistic imagination bear too unmistakably the
+stamp of their manufacture to be worth exposing, but others, more subtly
+constructed, have passed into the current coin of espionage legend
+without any better claim to authenticity. The life of Mata Hari is
+romantic enough to require no embellishment, so that in the following
+narrative imagination plays no part in the drama it unfolds. No effort
+has been made to invent situations or conversations to promote the easy
+flow of the story.
+
+Certain phases of Mata Hari’s life are inexplicable to those
+unaccustomed to the methods and practices of the secret services, and
+for this reason I have tried to illustrate the story with examples of
+other spies’ experiences. This knowledge of the German espionage work
+was collected while a regimental intelligence officer in Ireland,
+England, and France. The quoted examples of other spies are stories told
+me, for the most part, by men who were actually engaged in the work of
+counter-espionage which revealed their activities. It has been suggested
+that the narrative would be more convincing if the names of certain
+actors in the sensational story had appeared in the text. This could
+only have been done if the great game had terminated with the other
+hostilities on November 11, 1918. Unfortunately, that is not so. The
+scenes change, the task varies, but the work goes on. Reticence on
+certain points became not merely a matter of discretion, but of life and
+death to some of the men still engaged in the work of counter-espionage.
+
+For instance, allusion is made in the text to a Russian courier who
+carried a draft treaty in the barrel of his fountain pen. I have been
+asked who was the courier and what treaty did he carry. To reveal these
+details would most certainly lead to the imprisonment, possibly the
+death, of a man who is still actively engaged in this dangerous work. It
+might be urged that the mere mention of the extraordinary hiding-place
+is evidence enough to betray the main characters. Happily it is not. But
+danger lies in the explanation. For purely diplomatic reasons other
+details may not yet be revealed, as will be understood from a reading of
+the text; too many trusted and influential people are involved. It is a
+great gulf that separates the foyers of the elegant Champs-Élysées from
+the bivouac fires; the vicious luxury of the _demi-monde_, sipping its
+cocktail with nice enjoyment, from the beer-swigging soldiers in the
+canteens; the lascivious dances of the worship of Siva from the grim
+Dance of Death on the crumbling parapets, where riven bodies were a
+commonplace. Yet over this yawning gulf between selfish lust and heroic
+self-sacrifice went the fluttering feet of the Red Dancer and her
+partner, Death, and the injury she did was tragic enough without adding
+to it by exposing people who, through accident or indiscretion, became
+involved.
+
+                                                                   T. C.
+
+
+
+
+                              _Mata Hari_
+
+                           COURTESAN AND SPY
+
+
+
+
+                             _Chapter One_
+
+
+The first time I heard the name of Mata Hari was in the fall of 1916.
+The association of her name with the inexplicable leakage of highly
+confidential information will best reveal how the woman’s sinister
+activities reacted upon men far removed from her physical existence. It
+will help to show why a spy incurs such deadly hatred among men not
+disinclined to face death when the danger may be boldly grasped, but who
+shudder with apprehension when some nameless and invisible enemy tries
+to encompass their destruction under the veil of assumed friendship
+which promotes an attitude of indifference among those whose duty it is
+to guard against such concealed activity.
+
+Picture, then, a group of English soldiers straining their eyes into the
+abyss of night, waiting for the firing of a Verey light which will
+illumine a phenomenon just come within their knowledge. A patrol has
+just returned with the information that something mysterious has
+appeared in No Man’s Land that demands investigation. Scarcity of
+numbers in this sector had made increased watchfulness imperative and
+there was not a man among them who did not know No Man’s Land as
+intimately as he knew the details of his own back yard. But night plays
+fantastic tricks with the imagination and the eyes, so that when this
+newly returned patrol made its report there was no little uneasiness
+about the mysterious object set before their trench. Complete
+investigation, however, proved that this was no more than a crude
+notice-board bearing the scrawled enquiry, “Why wait for the 29th?”
+
+Thus it came about that the bursting indiscretion of a mischievous Saxon
+soldier undid the work of a cunning spy. But we, who were the victims of
+the joke, were completely bewildered by this singular message which had
+come out of the night. Nor could our staff offer any enlightenment when
+we applied to them for an explanation. They were too busy with
+statistical computations of the consumption of plum and apple jam to
+gratify the misplaced curiosity of an enemy whose sense of humour
+usually had a more _macabre_ touch. The incident would have been
+overlooked among more pressing anxieties and a tragedy would have
+resulted but for a chance visit the following day to some men who were
+training in the strictest seclusion for a special minor offensive.
+
+These men were of my own company and at my suggestion were being trained
+for a night raid in full daylight. Night training is usually rendered
+farcical by the impossibility of adequate supervision, but with darkness
+simulated by the use of dark glasses we hoped to achieve a greater
+degree of efficiency. The work of these men was conducted in the utmost
+secrecy. No one other than about six officers had any idea of either the
+purpose, the locale, or the time of the raid. Living in such isolation,
+the raiders were always delighted to receive their rare visitors and
+listened with delight to the most trifling details of our battalion
+activities. As most people whose lives are anything but a joke are
+usually entertained by the feeblest jests, I was tempted to tell them of
+the enemy’s enigmatic enquiry, “Why wait for the 29th?”
+
+The recital of this incident caused as much consternation as would have
+arisen in paradise had the devil dropped in for a social visit. Except,
+of course, for the blasphemy; that was supplemental, presumably. It
+appeared that the 29th was the date chosen for the secret raid and that
+our sector was to be the scene of the outburst. It was then the 26th. In
+spite of this unexpected betrayal after such elaborate precautions to
+maintain secrecy, the raid was carried out according to program in all
+its details except for the date. On the night of the 27th these men
+crept quietly out of the trenches, over No Man’s Land, and fell on an
+enemy taken completely by surprise. It would have been an unqualified
+success but for the unfortunate death of the young officer in command.
+On the return from the raid he was shot in the thigh and I was carrying
+him back to our trenches, when a bullet whipped through the night,
+penetrated his throat, and embedded itself in my shoulder. Just at the
+moment this happened he was about to tell me some secret of his last
+leave in Paris and his lips had just framed the words, “If we could only
+find that damned dancer ...” when they were closed by the great silence
+and his eyes turned to that dawn which knows no eventide.
+
+During a convalescence spent in France, I investigated the circumstances
+of young Hogg’s last leave and its association with a dancer, never for
+one moment imagining that it would lead to a definite result, since
+dancers are as numerous as thieves in the City of Light. What I did
+discover had no meaning at the time, but its significance was too great
+to be forgotten.
+
+In order to obtain the dark glasses which I had recommended for the
+training of his men, Hogg and a companion had gone to Paris as being the
+only place within reach likely to furnish this extraordinary need. The
+pair of youngsters had little or no knowledge of the city and their
+ignorance of the language made the simplest purchase as laborious as a
+complicated commercial transaction. They, therefore, addressed
+themselves to any chance acquaintance for information concerning
+spectacle-makers, but, thanks to the direction of their enquiries, their
+request was received as something of a pleasantry by everyone whom they
+encountered. Their mission was soon being passed from one malicious
+little tongue to another along café terraces until their appearance was
+hailed with delight in the more popular rendezvous. At last when they
+were becoming desperate, and therefore more amusing, one amiable lady
+volunteered her assistance. After a brief interview Hogg consented to
+accompany her on the quest for dark glasses. There were, I found,
+certain hectic celebrations attending the successful execution of the
+commission on which neither of the young officers retained clear
+recollections—when the stomach is full the head is empty. They returned
+to their posts satisfied that the amiable and kind lady would collect
+and forward the required glasses as soon as they were ready.
+
+It was possible, at a later date, and with more evidence available, to
+ascertain how the terrible Mata Hari did her work. In order to learn
+where and when this raid was to take place she had to delay the dispatch
+of the dark glasses until after the two young officers had finished
+their short leave, and to accept the responsibility of forwarding them
+when they were delivered by the optician who had undertaken to secure
+them. For this reason she was furnished with the correct address of the
+unit to which they were to be sent, and the enemy was thus able to
+identify the locale of the raid. The correct date she ascertained by
+feigning a great interest in the exploit and a desire to read of its
+successful accomplishment in the communiqué issued the following day.
+Those of us who were amazed at her ability to obtain such confidential
+information ceased to wonder at Mata Hari’s skill in this case when we
+became familiar with her major activities exercised against more capable
+protagonists than two young subalterns.
+
+The words spoken in the presentiment of death are often prophetic.
+Months later, when Mata Hari was under trial for espionage, the writer
+heard her spoken of as the “Red Dancer,” and the mystery of “Why wait
+for the 29th?” became a fragment of an infinitely greater quest which
+led to the revelation of the entire life of the woman who was registered
+in the German secret service as H21 and who sent thousands like this
+young colleague to their death.
+
+
+
+
+                             _Chapter Two_
+
+
+This is the Reverse of the Medal. What of its obverse? The story of the
+spy H21 is incomprehensible without a knowledge of the “Red Dancer.”
+Unless one understands the extraordinary power of fascination she
+exercised it is not possible to believe that she could reduce the Second
+Bureau, the nerve centre of the French army, to temporary impotence;
+could correspond with her espionage chief on paper that bore the heading
+of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; could have conducted an intimate
+intrigue with the head of the War Department; and when an outraged army
+finally brought her to trial and condemnation, could yet invoke the aid
+of princes, ambassadors, and scholars. It is only by a knowledge of what
+she called her artistic life that one can realize the nature and extent
+of her fatal sorcery. It explains, too, why a band of enthusiastic
+pseudo-intellectuals are still endeavouring to invest her with an
+aureole of martyrdom, for she claimed the attributes of a high-priestess
+of an ancient but little-known religion, and her adorers are willing to
+place her in that office within their own degenerate cult.
+
+Not all her believers are to be classed in this coterie. There still
+lingers a select band of irreconcilables who steadfastly maintain that
+Mata Hari’s claims to be a _bayadère_ were perfectly genuine. One still
+meets in the Parisian haunts of the pseudo-intellectuals an occasional
+visitor who whispers that on a recent visit to a remote _schloss_ in a
+secluded part of Austria he was privileged to attend a repetition of one
+of these religious ceremonies dedicated to the god Siva and presided
+over by Mata Hari. His words fall on believing ears and there are
+murmurs of regret that France should have been the chosen instrument for
+inflicting punishment upon this faithful disciple.
+
+In order to realize how she accomplished these astonishing feats one has
+to have a picture of her in one of her favourite séances, not a
+vaudeville appearance this time (for her public appearances were only
+gestures to the mob of unbelievers), but the type of occasion from which
+she extracted most enjoyment and most wealth, and which was the
+foundation of her amazing power over men of position and influence. It
+is such a scene as might be witnessed in the intimacy of the elegant
+palaces of, say, the Prince Drago, the Princess Murat, or the Duchess of
+Eckmühl. In the voluptuous abandon of the semi-privacy, before a group
+of selected guests, reclining in luxurious ease after copious
+sacramental libations and surrounded by her worshippers, Mata Hari
+invokes the image of her youth.
+
+“I was born,” she says in a soft, languorous tone which the listeners
+immediately associated with the mysterious East, “in the south of India
+on the coast of Malabar, in the holy city of Jaffnapatam, the child of a
+family within the sacred caste of Brahma. By reason of his piety and
+pureness of heart my father was called _Assirvadam_, which means ‘The
+Blessing of God.’ My mother was a glorious _bayadère_[1] in the temple
+of Kanda Swany. She died when she was fourteen, on the same day I was
+born. The priests of the temple, having cremated my mother, adopted me
+under the baptismal name of Mata Hari, which means ‘Eye of the Dawn.’
+From the time when I took my first uncertain steps I was shut up in the
+great subterranean hall of the pagoda of Siva, where I was to be trained
+to follow in my mother’s footsteps through the holy rites of the dance.
+Of these early years my mind retains only vague recollections of a
+monotonous existence in which, during the long morning hours, I was
+taught to imitate automatically the movements of the _bayadères_, and in
+the afternoons was allowed to walk in the gardens while weaving garlands
+of jasmine for decorating the altars. When I reached the threshold of
+womanhood my foster-mother saw in me a predestined soul and resolved to
+dedicate me to Siva and to reveal to me the mystery of love and faith on
+the night of Sakty-pudja, in the coming spring....”
+
+Footnote 1:
+
+  The _bayadères_ must not be confused with the _nautch_ dancers. The
+  former are ministrants in the temples and enjoy the respect of the
+  worshippers. _Nautch_ dancers, on the other hand, are merely
+  professional dancers engaged to furnish entertainment.
+
+The soft, caressing voice trails off into silence, and at the
+recollection of this blissful moment a tremor of religious ecstasy
+passes over the exquisitely moulded, amber-tinted body, daringly
+revealed for these nocturnal invocations of her sacred youth. Then
+suddenly she awakens from her reverie to ask:
+
+“Have any of you an idea of the Sakty-pudja of the Kanda Swany?”
+
+The hypnotized audience, which on occasion included well-known
+Orientalists, are compelled to reply that they possess no intimate
+knowledge of this festivity of license and religious revelry, so she
+proceeds to enlighten them.
+
+“It was on the purple granite altar of the Kanda Swany that, at the age
+of thirteen, I danced for the first time, completely nude.”
+
+Then, in the midst of the superb luxury of her wealthy patron’s home,
+inspired by the rich food, by the wines, by the seductive lights, by the
+sensuous perfumes (all prearranged) she begins to explain the mysteries
+of the Supreme Night on which the holy men of the temple savour in life
+the cruel but divine ecstasies of Siva’s paradise, that terrible god
+Siva who is the god of all sin, of all misunderstanding, of all cruelty.
+This recital is illustrated by poses and gestures more provocative than
+plain speech. The earlier stages of this fantastic orgy which she
+describes are devoted to meditation in an atmosphere of subtle drugs and
+Oriental languors. As the awaited moment approaches, when the wise men
+will announce the appearance in the heavens of the sign of the Three
+Goddesses, the melodious notes of a concealed orchestra begin to breathe
+haunting, dreamy harmonies. From the dark recesses of the waving jungle
+a soft voice warns of the awakening of the sacred serpents, who, tempted
+by the seductive murmur of the instruments, writhe their long slow
+length to the temple where Siva awaits their homage. And there they
+dance! Among them whirl the curving, undulating bodies of the dainty
+little _bayadères_, as clammily chill and as naked as the serpents. The
+remainder of this festivity is indescribable; it eclipses the
+bacchanalian fêtes of decadent Rome.
+
+This is the beginning of the legend which has grown up about the modern
+high-priestess of the dance as a religious rite. In conversation with
+her many admirers she outlines her life as she would have wished it to
+be. Having no hand in its origin, the next best thing is to prepare the
+origin which is best adapted to the rôle she has assumed. The rest
+followed naturally in a romantic sequence which satisfied her love of
+the dramatic. Mata Hari told how she followed her profession in the
+temple until one day a handsome English officer saw her performance and,
+struck by the sadness of her eyes, ventured to violate the sacred rules
+of her caste by speaking to her. In accordance with the requirements of
+romance, they fell in love with each other and the adventurous officer
+by a display of cunning, courage, and resource rescued the little Mata
+Hari from the prospect of a life devoted to the adoration of the god
+Siva, and married her. Shortly after their marriage a son, Norman, was
+born, and by her own account the young mother’s cup of happiness was
+filled to the brim with this new rapture. However, she said, the child
+did not live long, for a typically Oriental act of poisoning resulted in
+his death. During a visit to America Mata Hari described in some detail
+how this tragedy so infuriated her that the savage within her nature
+rose in revolt, so that with her own hands she strangled the unfaithful
+servant who had given the child the poisoned cup.
+
+Thus her own account gives to her life a current of vibrant, barbaric
+adventure, heavily coloured by the mystery and romance of the unknown
+East, which was rendered all the more plausible by nature’s gifts. For
+this Dutch girl, born in Holland of homely parents, was endowed with a
+strangely Oriental cast of countenance and an amber-tinted body which
+she inherited, not from her Hindu parents, but from Jewish progenitors.
+
+
+
+
+                            _Chapter Three_
+
+
+“On the purple granite altar of the Kanda Swany, at the age of thirteen
+I was initiated.... When I danced before the rajahs on the banks of the
+sacred Ganges....”
+
+These and similar phrases were continually on the lips of Mata Hari as
+she sought to bind her audiences, or even individuals, for anything with
+ears to hear was sufficient audience for her, by the fascination of her
+intimate and secret knowledge of art, beauty, and love. However, there
+are two counterweights to her highly imaginative narrative which enable
+us to obtain a much truer picture of her earlier life and actions. One
+is her own _Life_ and the other the brief, frigidly cold, official
+biography collected by the French police. With the aid of these and the
+accounts of friends and witnesses it is possible to construct a fairly
+comprehensive story of her life, the life of Mata Hari, Red Dancer and
+H21 of the German secret service.
+
+The _Life_ is a well-printed volume which enjoys the scarcity of some
+rare incunabula. It was published in 1906 and the title page reads, in
+translation: “Mata Hari: Mrs. M. G. Zelle MacLeod. History of my
+daughter’s life and my charges against her former husband, with
+portraits, documents, facsimiles, and supplements, by A. Zelle, czm—C.
+L. G. Velat, Amsterdam.” But in spite of the clear attribution of
+authorship to the mother, a naïve prefatory note declares that “the
+earlier chapters of this book have been entirely written by my daughter.
+As for the later ones, since she lacked the time to finish them herself,
+they were sent to me from America for completion.” The story is too
+obviously directed against the errant husband to carry much weight as a
+serious autobiography, and it has only been used by the present writer
+to corroborate other testimony or to illustrate her thoughts. While we
+must follow the creation of the legend of Mata Hari, the time has come
+when she should be stripped of all her improvised art and her specially
+invented sacred origins and to judge her as a woman. If she is guilty of
+the crimes attributed to her, if her deeds brought death and maiming to
+men, tears and mourning to their innocent relatives, then no artistry,
+no amorous frailty, no pseudo-sacred origin, no peculiar mental
+viewpoint can condone or mitigate her sin.
+
+The real Mata Hari was born in the little Dutch town of Leeuwarden on
+August 7, 1876, and was given the baptismal names of Margaret Gertrude.
+Her nearest approach to Oriental ancestry was a strain of Jewish blood
+through her father’s descent. Adam Zelle was a prosperous business man,
+but the mother, a good-looking woman of the typical Dutch type, came
+from the better-class family of Van der Meulen. Margaret’s early life
+seems to have been no more distinguished by incident than that of the
+blond children who accompanied her to the Cammingha-State school, and
+who scampered through a happy innocent childhood on the banks of a grey
+canal. The girl whose dusky beauty was to enslave so many men in high
+places can recall no incident of these commonplace days other than a
+preference for one golden-haired little playmate. Doubtless it was the
+good Vrouw Zelle’s intention to have her daughter educated in a superior
+manner, more in keeping with the Van der Meulen pretensions, which urged
+her to send Margaret to a school where the girl would be taught to
+conduct herself becomingly. She was admitted to a Catholic convent at
+the age of fourteen, precisely the time when, from her own romantic
+tale, she was being rescued from the Kanda Swany. Thus, instead of being
+torn from the grasp of fanatical devotees of an unknown mystic cult, she
+was, in reality, entering the cloistered security of a religious house
+where young ladies are protected with zealous care.
+
+There she remained until she had reached the age of eighteen and went to
+spend a vacation at The Hague, the Dutch capital. In this town, where
+life flows with the turgid tranquillity of its own canal waters, the
+romantic girl was noticed by a handsome officer whose elegance was
+turning the heads of the simple Dutch maidens home from school. Captain
+Campbell MacLeod was no longer a young man, but, said Margaret Gertrude,
+enthusiastically, “His age renders him still more adorable.” Margaret
+admitted later that she had always suffered from a weakness for
+officers.
+
+“Anyone who is not an officer,” she said to a group of these men, “does
+not interest me. The officer is a being apart, a kind of artist
+breathing the grand air in the brilliant profession of arms, in a
+uniform that is always seductive. Yes, I have had a number of lovers,
+but they were always good soldiers, brave, ready for battle, and while
+waiting for it amiable and courteous. To me the officer is a separate
+race. I have loved only the officer and have never been concerned to
+know whether the man was German, Italian, or French.”
+
+This quaint conceit might have been adopted to flatter the men to whom
+it was addressed, but its spontaneity would have been sufficient proof
+of its sincerity if her life had not substantiated her words. What gives
+this statement a curious tinge of cynicism was the fact that the man who
+married her in no way fits the standard she had adopted for her officer.
+MacLeod was of good, even distinguished, Scottish descent and held a
+commission in the Dutch Colonial Army. At twenty-one he was a vicious
+young satyr; at forty he was a satiated libertine who continued to flout
+all decency from acquired habit rather than from active desire. A
+handsome man of dandified appearance who caressed a tender growth of
+down on his lip with jewelled fingers, while he cast stealthy glances of
+admiration upon the shapely young convent-bred girl enjoying her holiday
+in a town that is not remarkable for its festal life. The inappeasable
+sex-hunger of the unhappy man could be read in his eyes, and it was this
+which called to the sensuous Margaret.
+
+They were married and spent a joyous honeymoon among the sedate villas
+of Wiesbaden, where those drinking the vile waters (or pretending to)
+could, on occasion, inject no little gaiety into their cure. Walking in
+the pleasant and orderly public gardens or taking her aperitive at the
+Kurhaus she must have seen the resplendent type of creature whom she
+idealized as the officer, the aloof, dignified, and powerful officers of
+the garrison, so great a contrast to the man whom she had married. Who
+knows what promising glances she gave the uniformed gods beneath the
+sportive baskets of rosebuds which decorate the Hotel Rosenblume?
+
+After an unsuccessful attempt at conjugal felicity in the house of
+MacLeod’s sister, where Margaret proved once again that if man is not
+made to live alone, women are not intended to live together, the newly
+married couple took a house in the more modern part of Amsterdam. Here
+their ill-fated son, Norman, was born shortly after their marriage. One
+of the events which left an ineffaceable impression on the luxury-loving
+bride dates from this same year. MacLeod had the privilege, as an army
+officer, of presenting his wife at court. Possibly it was on this
+occasion when she made her first bow before royalty that she conceived
+the idea of having kings and princes pay her homage.
+
+Indeed, she now begins to cultivate a new pride. It appears that her
+husband was not as wealthy as he was supposed to be and his extravagant
+habits led to trouble. Margaret felt that she was being neglected, and
+in her loneliness found she was no more than a housekeeper for her gay
+husband.
+
+“My grandmother was the Baroness Winjbergen,” she reminds MacLeod when
+she revolts against this treatment.
+
+But worse is to come. The accomplished libertine whose name she bore
+would not break off his acquired habits; he rarely was to be found at
+home. He preferred the companionship of fair but frail ladies, of good
+fellows with whom he could gamble with all he possessed and a little
+more. In a short time he had reached a stage of threatened ruin from
+which nothing but an act of repulsive dishonour saved him. The young
+wife was instructed to employ her coy glances, her strange Oriental
+beauty, and her nascent powers of fascination upon a certain wealthy man
+whose indiscretions made him a suitable object for blackmail. Margaret
+was not averse to making the attempt.
+
+“But this man was a great admirer of my eyes,” she explains in recording
+this interview in her _Life_, “and I was able to collect several
+thousands of guilders without having to be unfaithful.”
+
+The final qualification, if true, would not have been added, even as an
+afterthought, a short while later.
+
+After this incident there is a gap in Margaret’s life, until we find her
+husband commanding a battalion of the Colonial Army Reserve in Java,
+where he is living with his wife and two children. The second child, a
+daughter called Jeanne Louise, had been born a short while before they
+left Holland. But, by the time their track has been picked up in this
+jungle clearing, their domestic relations are the scandal of the Dutch
+colony.
+
+“It was at Benjoe-Biroe that I got my first whipping,” Margaret says,
+reminiscently.
+
+Shortly after this Margaret began to bombard her father for assistance
+to secure a legal separation, and the prosperous burgher laid a formal
+complaint against the husband with the local authorities. At the same
+time he admonished his daughter to control herself with patience and to
+have a witness at the next whipping, as this would facilitate a divorce.
+In this humid atmosphere the flowers of evil germinate quickly and burst
+into abundant blossoms. Before long the half-demented officer was
+threatening his wife with a loaded revolver.
+
+“He was in love with another woman,” Margaret writes, “and was willing
+to pay the price of murder for his liberty. He admitted it and warned me
+that unless we were divorced very quickly he would kill me.”
+
+This consummation of folly was rendered unnecessary by the termination
+of MacLeod’s active service. When he was transferred to the reserve of
+officers the ill-assorted pair returned to Amsterdam and a petition for
+divorce was promptly instituted. But as if to show her desire for
+originality the petitioner continued to live with her husband in his
+sister’s home until his incessant drunken revelry led the good lady, or
+her respectable lawyer husband, to eject them. The MacLeod _ménage_ then
+sought a refuge in a modest dwelling which was not at all in keeping
+with Margaret’s high ambitions. From here the husband went out one night
+on the familiar pretext of mailing a letter and took their sick child
+with him so that she might benefit from the air. He did not return. Or,
+rather, he only returned when Margaret had recovered the custody of the
+little Jeanne through the aid of the courts, pending a decision of her
+petition for divorce. When MacLeod did return to the Van Breestrat home
+he promptly installed a new mistress. He then proceeded to settle
+accounts with Margaret in a manner characteristic of a man who fails to
+give his wife any financial assistance. He caused a notice to be
+inserted in the newspapers that he would no longer be responsible for
+his wife’s debts.
+
+This pious act of repudiation roused Margaret to a pitch of fury, for
+she declared that it was instrumental in closing the doors of all her
+friends, even that of her noble and virtuous aunt, Baroness Landes,
+where she had found a temporary refuge. But Dutch doors are not so
+puritanical that they close automatically upon those whose sole error is
+to have contemplated divorce from a savage, drunken husband. Dutch
+hospitality has a warmer reputation. Be that as it may, Margaret MacLeod
+found herself on the street with a sick child, without clothes, and for
+riches the sum of three and a half florins.
+
+At this point we leave the old Margaret. Her apprenticeship among the
+cherubim of hell now begins. The Red Dancer begins to take form among
+the mists that blow in from the North Sea. It may be added, in passing,
+that the Dutch courts, having refused her the divorce for which she
+applied, granted it shortly after to her husband, to the profound
+indignation of her posthumous admirers.
+
+
+
+
+                             _Chapter Four_
+
+
+The Paris début of Mata Hari had a ludicrous termination. Light upon
+this stage of her life has been wanting, so that these few scant details
+will be interesting since they are new. Finding all havens closed to her
+in Amsterdam, Margaret decided to admit failure and returned to the
+parental home in The Hague. But the prosperous and highly respected
+burgher-father killed no fatted calf for the wanderer. Instead, he was
+ready enough to provide the means of removing his daughter from the
+neighbourhood. Furnished with the necessary funds, Margaret made for
+Paris, determined to make her début as a dancer. But since she had no
+professional training and had to find a means of livelihood until her
+act was ready, she did what so many other young stage people do—she
+posed as a model for painters.
+
+“On the purple granite altar of the Kanda Swany....”
+
+But between the coasts of Malabar and La Rotonde many waters flow.
+Margaret was twenty-seven when she knocked one morning at a studio door
+in the Montparnasse district.
+
+“I am seeking employment as a model,” she explained to the artist.
+
+“Very good,” he replied. “Let me see your figure.”
+
+“Oh no! I want to pose only for the head,” was her horrified response.
+“I am the widow of a colonel who died in the Indies and left me with two
+sons. I am trying to educate them but have no resources.”
+
+“In that case your beauty ought to secure you some sittings for the
+head, but you will be paid much less than if you will pose for the full
+figure, for, from what I can gather, you must have a pretty figure. At
+any rate, I don’t insist.”
+
+Margaret lamented the immolation of her modesty, the outrage to her
+distinguished family, and, generally, made use of the familiar
+arguments, but when the painter told her abruptly that she could do just
+whatever she pleased she began to undress.
+
+To this man and to other artists we owe the explosion of another portion
+of the bubble of her legendary life. Artists who saw her have all borne
+testimony to the beauty of Mata Hari’s figure, several declaring that
+they had never seen such lovely shaped arms. But for the employment as a
+model she had one grave defect—her bust was pendulous and ugly. During
+her dances she never bared her breasts, although this was the only part
+of her body which was covered. Invariably she wore a jewelled covering
+for her bosom. The Red Dancer had her own explanation to offer for this
+and it reflected more to the type of credit she coveted.
+
+“My husband,” she used to say, “often threatened to disfigure me so that
+no other man would desire me.”
+
+She claimed that in one of his fits of erotic dementia the man had
+attacked her in such a ferocious fashion that she was mutilated. “That
+is why,” she would conclude the story, “I have not cared to exhibit my
+complete torso.”
+
+However, to return to her application for employment. The disappointment
+of the artist that such a promising model was not satisfactory for his
+purpose caused him to remark that, after all, she had better pose for
+the head alone. Either she felt her modesty was outraged by this, or,
+what is more likely, her vanity was shocked, but the innocent statement
+produced what the French call a _crise de nerfs_, in which the artist
+had to call for his wife’s assistance and, to soothe Margaret’s injured
+modesty (or vanity), the painter did make use of her in a poster which
+occupied him at the time. She was in the grimly appropriate character of
+Messalina! Thus the poster of the Gaîté’s production of Isador de Lara’s
+“Messalina” was posed by Mata Hari, and no one has yet commented on the
+grim symbolism of the combination.
+
+In 1903 she made her début as a dancer, less than a year after the
+inhospitable doors of her virtuous relations had closed upon her. What
+success she had or might have reaped from this initial appearance is
+only a matter of speculation, because the outraged Scottish husband
+clamoured for protection against anyone bearing the honoured name of his
+puritanical ancestors consecrating herself to the art of the dance in
+the modern Babylon. In the first flush of his outraged pride he wrote an
+indignant letter to his wife, threatening to have her enclosed in a
+convent if she did not conduct herself with more modesty and dignity.
+
+This unexpected document afflicted Margaret with a mingling of tears,
+fear, and revolt. She demanded telegraphic counsel of her relatives, and
+as a result of their replies she voluntarily returned to Holland and
+went into seclusion amid the austere rusticity of Nimegue, in order to
+escape the mediæval vengeance of her irate husband. To the enthusiastic
+admirers of Mata Hari this period of her life has been likened to the
+Agony in the Garden. The crazy, muddled drug addicts whose celestial
+system centres round the more obscure night haunts of Paris and extends
+only to the other bank of the Seine, picture life in this little Dutch
+town as refined torture for the soul that sought the unbounded liberty
+of the stars, the unmeasured spaces of love, and the unplumbed depths of
+Siva’s paradise. But they are a little in advance of time. The
+constellation of the Three Goddesses was not yet reported to have
+appeared in the firmament. None the less, Margaret hated the place.
+
+“Am I to remain here for the rest of my days?” she wails in January of
+1904. Truly one who has known the joys of Parisian life will understand
+that the innocent festivities of Nimegue are a poor substitute. It was
+doubtless the repression of this period which caused her to fly to the
+other extreme when she escaped. In place of the glaring footlights which
+she coveted was the pale reflection of the sun in the copper dishes on
+the walls; the only audience were the curious housewives who peered from
+behind discreetly drawn curtains as the woman of the dance-halls flitted
+down the silent street; and for music, the joyous music her heart loved,
+there was only the metallic clank of the municipal belfry when the
+bell-ringers practised their ingenuous hobby. The grey little town which
+dwells in the almost perpetual shadow of sea mists must have seemed as
+remote from the delights of the City of Light as was Benjoe-Biroe in the
+Javanese jungle.
+
+“I shall triumph sooner or later,” she cries defiantly from the
+enveloping fog.
+
+And then one day she summons her courage and descends upon the gay Paris
+like a thunderclap. Margaret Gertrude Zelle is no more, the curtain
+rises definitely on the Red Dancer.
+
+
+
+
+                             _Chapter Five_
+
+
+Mata Hari established her reputation in Paris; she achieved the highest
+flights of her fame in that city, and her other conquests, in Berlin,
+Rome, Vienna, London, were but reflections of her Parisian success. Her
+first efforts were in public, on the vaudeville stage, where she
+speedily gained a sympathetic reception by the novelty of her dancing.
+But it was not as a dancer that she coveted a reputation. Of one thing
+about her dancing we may be certain: as an art such as Isadora Duncan
+conceived it or as Loie Fuller imagined it, Mata Hari had no conception.
+Dancing to her was nothing more than a means of attracting attention, of
+displaying the splendour of her beauty, with the ultimate object of
+captivating her lovers. Like many another artist who has imagined
+herself greater than her art, Mata loved the adulation offered to a
+popular favourite, but better than a large audience in a theatre she
+loved the intimacy afforded by private engagements in some luxurious
+apartment where, before a select audience of refined profligates, and
+brilliant, wealthy, dilettantes she could explain with greater freedom
+the sensuous rites of the fantastic cult to which she had promoted
+herself the high-priestess.
+
+Her ideal was to become a famous—the most famous—courtesan, and to
+achieve it she invented her sacred origin and improvised an art. The
+opportunity she sought was to exhibit her lovely amber body among gold
+and precious stones, to pose rhythmically among sumptuous
+transparencies. The rest was only decoration to conceal, justify, and
+stimulate the underlying sensual debauch.
+
+“When in my infancy I danced before rajahs on the shores of the sacred
+Ganges....”
+
+In point of fact, Mata Hari’s knowledge of the orgies practised in
+Brahmanist temples and sanctuaries was derived exclusively from books.
+The most she had ever seen were the dances of the tiny Javanese _bayas_
+in those villages she had visited while her husband was with the Dutch
+colonial forces. Between these diminutive little creatures (more like
+automatic toys than flesh and blood) and the _apsaras_ of the Brahman
+temples there is a huge gulf. One is the incarnation of some abstract
+ancestral rite grown ghostly by its tenuous prolongation through the
+ages; the other is the realization of a morbid drug-distorted vision of
+bestiality, thinly veiled behind a religious significance.
+
+There may have been moments when she took her charlatanry seriously, but
+that Mata Hari’s dances had any religious meaning is the fantasy of
+minds not less distorted than her own. As the shadows closed around her
+in the prison of Saint-Lazare she gratefully accepted the ministrations
+of two Catholic nuns, and on the morning of her execution actually
+received the rite of baptism from the hands of an Anabaptist pastor. Two
+days after her sentence she begged the prison doctor to obtain for her
+some books to beguile the weary hours. Doubtful about her tastes, the
+doctor begged for some guidance in the selection, suggesting the works
+of such popular writers as Marcel Prévost, Bourget, and Rosny. She
+rejected these suggestions with scorn.
+
+“Stories about the middle classes never interested me,” she declared.
+“To you I can confess that I have never been able to read through one of
+those works which are called comedies of manners. What I do like is
+poetry which has mystery, religion, legend, and magic. I firmly believe
+that the only means of living in beauty consists in avoiding the
+thousand and one daily annoyances which interfere with an existence in
+the full ideal. That is why I cannot tolerate European things, not even
+the religion.” At which declaration she shook an admonitory finger at
+the doctor and continued, “Now do not go and tell that to the poor
+religious who are trying so hard to convert me. Those unhappy people do
+not understand what the word religion means on my lips and they would
+certainly cross themselves piously if they knew that I mingled dances
+and caresses in my liturgy.... For I am a Hindu, although born in
+Holland. Hindu? Yes, certainly. You who are an intelligent man will say
+that there must be something European in me. No, there is not. I am
+absolutely Oriental.
+
+“Further, the Orient alone interests me deeply. When one speaks of
+motherlands my soul turns to a distant country where a golden pagoda is
+mirrored in a winding stream. I do not know exactly what I am or where I
+am from. From Benares, from Golconda, from Gwalior, from Madura, what
+does it matter? There is a secret in my origin, in my blood. It will be
+known sometime later, but, for my own part, I have barely penetrated the
+fringe of the secret.”
+
+The doctor said that at this point of the invocation of her illusory
+cradle a look of great sadness came over her eyes. This man, who knew
+little of her imaginary birth and life, declares that he was baffled by
+the complexity of her nature. He maintains that she possessed nothing of
+the nature, type, character, culture, mind, or appearance of the women
+of Europe; there was something of the primitive savage and at the same
+time something sacerdotal and refined about her. Concerning the fuller
+development of her studies she continued:
+
+“Formerly, my favourite reading was that which informed me how to love
+life and savour voluptuous delights with a passionate, Sybaritical
+enjoyment. In the _Prem Sagar_ there are chapters which make the senses
+reel as though one was intoxicated with sensuous drugs. And the works of
+Kalidasa and his disciples, with their tenderness and picturesque
+subtlety, have furnished me with entire days of ecstasy. I smile when I
+hear people say that scenic art reaches its apogee in Paris. Yonder, in
+India, each passion has its perfume and colour. Thus, love is blue,
+pleasure white, tenderness rose, and heroism red. As a new sentiment is
+about to dominate a drama the decoration changes tints and the
+atmosphere changes its aroma.... The lovers really love, actually engage
+in the love embrace on the stage in full view of the audience. They hate
+just as truly. The pursuit and attack is real. I have seen blood on the
+hands of some of the actors. Ah, those legends of chivalry! those
+stories of Rajput warriors who, with a saffron tunic over their coat of
+mail, went forth seeking marvellous adventures.... And the romances of
+proud Brahmanist daughters enamoured of their pages, imprisoned in a
+citadel for years because of their love, without renouncing the hope of
+escape which would enable them to flee some day and join the faithful
+lovers who awaited them at the door of the pagoda.
+
+“Nothing is more poetic, nobler, or greater than what remains to us of
+ancient India.”
+
+Instead of the _Imitation of Christ_, which appears to be the favoured
+study of condemned prisoners, Mata Hari chose the _Lotus of Faith_, a
+Buddhist book of instruction which teaches a contempt for everything in
+life. Even under the shadow of the broad wings of hovering death this
+extraordinary woman could command her imagination to furnish the
+ecstasies she had formerly been able to realize through the flesh. It is
+needless to say that in these confidences her recollections were mere
+flights of fancy and not efforts of memory. That artistic touch of the
+actors with blood-reeking hands was sheer imagination—the poetic licence
+of the story-teller, like so much else in her autobiography. For Mata
+Hari’s heart found sustenance in two things—imagination and love of the
+carnal kind.
+
+So much, then, for her religion—it was art and love. Yet, to those who
+suffered from her deception, she insisted upon the religious
+significance of her art. To one admirer she wrote: “As you know, every
+true temple dance (not those of the street and the public places) is a
+theological treatise and should explain in pose and gesture the rules of
+the Vedas, the sacred books.”
+
+Since these sacred books contain the most complete description of the
+joys of sensual love, of the arts to be practised by the courtesan who
+desires to become successful, and the captivating graces to be employed
+in retaining the affections of a lover, they were appropriately chosen
+to form the basis of her art. That they were religious treatises was an
+accident. Not only in her public appearances, but in the intimacy of her
+boudoir she tried to invoke the vision of the divine Brahma in the
+halflights of an ancient sanctuary; of mysterious flowers, exotic,
+luscious, stupefying; of the undulating coils of the writhing serpent
+interlaced with rich foliage. The beautiful amber-tinted body glides
+with infinite grace among the illusive disorder of diaphanous, floating
+veils, and the intoxication of subtly penetrating perfumes.
+
+For her “Sacred Flower Dance,” a favourite with her, based upon the
+legend of the goddess with the power of embodying herself within the
+petals of a flower, she writes in several letters to one of her
+associates, ordering the musical accompaniment just as a banker’s wife
+orders a gown for a special occasion.
+
+  The music of “The Flowing Waters” will serve as an overture to convey
+  the impression that the temple is in a forest with a murmuring cascade
+  within hearing. A prince comes to plead before the goddess, seated
+  like a bronze statue on her altar. He enters the temple bearing
+  exquisite orchids, the incarnation of the divinity, whose place on the
+  altar has been taken for this rite by a priestess. As the prince makes
+  intercession to the goddess before her altar he burns the blossoms in
+  sacrifice. To him the priestess makes this terrible prediction: “You
+  will die as everything must die. Make your life a succession of
+  delicious and glorious moments. Better that you pass on this earth
+  through moments of intense sensation and then depart, than drag your
+  body through an old age that is without beauty and satisfaction.”
+
+  As the ecstatic fumes from the burning flowers intoxicate the prince,
+  the priestess (which shall be me) rises and dances, explaining in pose
+  and gesture the rules of the Veda, the holy books of the Brahma. The
+  music must express the pose of the incarnation, the apparition of the
+  flower, its unfolding into blossom, the closing of its petals, all
+  typifying the powers of Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva—that is to say,
+  creation, fruitfulness, decay. The whole fades into obscurity; prince,
+  goddess, and high-priestess disappear.
+
+This, then, is the rôle she has chosen. She adds a point of exclamation
+in one of her letters in which she says that Siva is the god of sin; he
+“must have a power of destruction which equals, if it does not surpass,
+the good of Brahma.” Siva was her favourite god; she became the symbol
+of his cult and she recruited many worshippers.
+
+No such weird fantasy could ever have become an accepted doctrine if
+preached from the stage of a vaudeville theatre, and well Mata Hari knew
+it. In the sepulchral solitude of Nimegue the idea was developed until
+in 1905, when she returned to Paris, Mata Hari did not seek engagements
+immediately on the stage. Her campaign was more subtle once the
+opportunity had suggested itself, and the suggestion came from a most
+unexpected source. She proposed to give a performance of Javanese dances
+in the Guimet Museum, which is devoted to the collection of Oriental
+curiosities. Here, beneath the enigmatic smile of a great golden Buddha,
+she danced in the discreet costume of saffron-coloured veils before a
+specially invited audience, never suspecting the possibilities of the
+display until a grave and learned scholar gave her the clue. All
+Orientalists are distinguished for their gravity. A bearded scholar of
+Eastern lore rose and explained to the awed audience the meaning of the
+rhythmic ceremony they were about to witness. Having completed his
+discourse, Mata Hari was called on to appear in her saffron veilings
+and, with her face glowing from the excitement of the scholar’s
+suggestions, she danced her “Black Pearl” dance.
+
+Needless to say that at this stage of her career (1905–06) Mata Hari was
+almost wholly ignorant of the Brahman religion and its ceremonial
+dances. All she proposed to do was to give a romantic version of the
+stiff and mechanical movements of the little Javanese dancers. But the
+grave old Oriental scholar had put an idea into her receptive brain and
+she nourished it with care. Next morning the Paris newspapers were
+filled with the novelty of this extraordinary performance in a museum of
+serious studies, and she decided to reap the full benefit of her sudden
+fame.
+
+“On the purple granite altar of the Kanda Swany I danced for the first
+time....”
+
+In reality, then, the first step on the ladder was not on the coasts of
+Malabar, but on the Paris boulevards. From the museum of Oriental art to
+the _salon_ of the Chilean minister was the next step, but this was not
+a resting-place; it was no more than a breathing space on the rapid rise
+to ascendency. Besides, she had not yet reached the stage of complete
+nudity which she was to favour. That only came when the Princess Murat
+invited her to perform before an exclusive assembly in her city palace.
+Later the Prince del Drago placed her on the topmost pinnacle of
+notoriety when he gave a celebration which was designed to revolve
+around the central figure of a _bayadère_—Mata Hari. It was these
+evenings among the socially elect which gave her most delight, not the
+public performances at the Olympia or in the chill scholastic atmosphere
+of the Guimet Museum. Besides, they were infinitely more profitable in
+the outcome. High though her earnings as a dancer were, much more money
+was required to indulge her extravagant tastes and the indiscriminate
+charity which she dispensed. The effect of these displays can best be
+understood with the aid of a spectator’s recollections.
+
+“You can scarcely credit the mystic frenzy produced by her lascivious
+attitudes,” he said. “Her nervous tremors, her violent contortions, were
+terribly impressive. There was in the performance something of the
+solemnity of an idol, something of the loathsome horror of a writhing
+reptile. From her great sombre eyes, half closed in sensuous ecstasy,
+there gleamed an uncanny light, like phosphorescent flames. She seemed
+to embrace an invisible being in her long shapely arms. Her braceleted
+legs were glossy and well moulded, they so quivered through excessive
+effort that it seemed the tendons must burst through the enveloping
+skin. To witness the spectacle was to receive the impression that one
+had actually been present at the metamorphosis of a serpent taking a
+woman’s form.”
+
+A serpent, always a serpent!
+
+
+
+
+                             _Chapter Six_
+
+
+But she prospered exceedingly. From 1905, when she first developed the
+idea of becoming a civilized _bayadère_, her love affairs followed her
+like an unending procession. From her admirers she received such
+substantial homage that before long she was established in a sumptuous
+apartment near the Champs-Élysées, she had her private carriage and a
+collar of pearls. This may not exactly be the apogee of her existence
+(that was reserved for her German career), but it certainly represents
+the highest peak of her artistic life. A man who knew her well without
+having succumbed to her fatal charm, but who had many opportunities of
+studying her at this time, gives a description of Mata Hari which denies
+her claim to beauty.
+
+“She was not,” he maintained, “really pretty. Her features lacked
+refinement. There was something bestial about the lips, cheeks, and jaw.
+Her brown skin always had the appearance of having been anointed with
+oil or was exuding perspiration. Her bust was flat and drooping and
+always concealed from view. Only her eyes and arms were absolute in
+their beauty. Those who said she had the most beautiful arms in the
+world did not exaggerate. And her eyes! Eyes that were magnetic and
+enigmatic, ever changing, yet ever of velvety softness, commanding and
+pleading, melancholy and mean, those terrible eyes in whose depths so
+many souls were drowned, actually merited the adoration awarded them.”
+
+Paul Namur painted two portraits of her at this time, one in street
+costume, which seems to have disappeared, and the other a dance pose in
+the nude which shows her wearing an Indian diadem and a collar of
+emeralds and topaz. Mata made several sittings for them, and the artist
+had the opportunity to exercise his trained observation on her. His
+recollections are interesting.
+
+“The most striking thing about her,” he says, “was the astonishing fact
+that this spoiled darling, upon whom destiny had showered gifts, grace,
+talent, fame, rarely lost the expression of inmost sadness. Frequently
+she would recline in an armchair, dreaming of secret things for perhaps
+an hour. I cannot recall that I ever saw Mata Hari smile.”
+
+Another time he said:
+
+“She was as superstitious as a Hindu. Once, while disrobing, a jade
+bracelet slipped from her wrist. She turned quite pale and cried:
+
+“‘That will bring me bad luck. You will see. It is a presentiment of
+misfortune. Keep it, that horrid bracelet. I never want to see it
+again.’”
+
+The Paris of her day was the most fertile ground for cultivating love as
+a subtle and very complicated science. She never practised the simpler
+arts of coquetry so familiar to the chic _Parisienne_, and it was this
+original development as a science rather than as an art which carried
+her to the position from which she could exercise such a malign
+influence when Paris became an entrenched camp. Unfortunately, Paris,
+which is the pleasure ground of the entire world as well as the capital
+of France, is as capricious in its loves as are most other things where
+pleasure is the main motive. There is nothing so completely satiating as
+the same delight repeated without variation. Mata’s position began to
+slip. She had imitators who roused her fury because she felt they were
+stealing her thunder. After a short disappearance from the stage to
+devote herself exclusively to a new and exigent adorer she writes to a
+friend:
+
+  I want to begin work afresh, to expose myself to all the cares to
+  which glory (!) exposes us, but I want to have the credit for what I
+  do. I no longer want to see others working on my ideas.
+
+This becomes the theme of several of her existing letters. And then,
+there was a waning popularity when she appeared in public. The
+inevitable was taking place. Art was the chosen expression for
+advertising her ministry at the altar of love; she desired to have the
+reputation of an Isadora Duncan without that artist’s varied and
+extensive repertoire, her talent, and her broader conception of art.
+Isadora Duncan was primarily an artist living for her art, sacrificing
+herself to its demands. Mata Hari was first of all a courtesan; if she
+appealed to art it was only as a subterfuge. There were fits of
+unbridled rage when she was denied this right to which she pretended.
+The capricious Parisians began to tire of her public appearances, and
+with the decrease in their adulation she felt her position slipping from
+her. The press which had greeted her favourably grew lukewarm, and then
+chilling. The Paris audiences refused to regard her as anything but what
+she pretended to be, an artist, and Mata Hari had her moments of pride.
+She would be content with nothing but the position of a goddess whose
+character she was always ready to assume. She did not wish to be
+everything to any one man, but to be all things to all men.
+
+This excessive vanity was her downfall. Casting about for a locale where
+her artistic pretensions would be taken at their proper value and her
+true character recognized, she thought of her former reception in
+Berlin. What the French gave so niggardly would be yielded generously by
+the Germans, who adored her. Therefore, she accepted another engagement
+in Berlin in 1907.
+
+“There are times when I almost believe in the caprices of fate,” she
+once wrote to an admirer. “But a moment’s thought convinces me that
+destiny is what we make it.”
+
+If this is true, then it was in Berlin that Mata Hari shaped the destiny
+which conducted her to the rifle-range at Vincennes. Of her residence in
+Berlin little is known, partly because the German secret service (or
+that of any other nation) does not seek publicity for the work of its
+agents, and partly because association with men of very high social
+standing ensured a conspiracy of silence on her actions. We know very
+little of her life other than that she was speedily welcomed by the male
+aristocracy of the nation. She accompanied the Crown Prince to the army
+manœuvres in Silesia, appeared in Berlin night life as the companion of
+the young Duke of Brunswick, had other admirers of less exalted station,
+and, consciously or unconsciously, became a spy.
+
+It is not possible to understand how a woman like Mata Hari could become
+a spy without having an elementary knowledge of the methods adopted by
+the German secret police in recruiting their agents, and without knowing
+why other women were persuaded to accept this highly dangerous
+employment. It is the practice of most countries to avoid using a woman
+for this work if a man is available; in England it is an almost
+invariable rule never to employ women, and the English have good reasons
+for their action. Of the most conspicuous spies of recent years who have
+paid the penalty for their labors, women like Marguerite Francillard,
+“Eva,” the old ogre Tichelly, Yvonne Schadeck, and Anne Garnier, all of
+them with the one exception of Tichelly (who had a warped sense of
+morality in general) were dragged into the business because they had
+fallen in love with men who were already in the secret service.
+Coudoyannis, the Greek, a very active and highly paid spy, found that a
+little friend was essential in his character as a man about town, but no
+sooner had he secured one than his chief writes to offer him the
+alternative of dismissing her or of luring her into the service. The
+idea of making use of their mistresses was part of the doctrine taught
+by certain instructors. Indeed, it is known that the notorious Frau
+Henrichsen (known to the French also as “Mlle. Doktor”), who was head of
+the Antwerp branch of the organization, was recruited in exactly the
+same way from the Berlin _demi-monde_. Marussia Destrelles, Mata Hari’s
+friend, certainly was enrolled by that means.
+
+There is no more perplexing problem in Mata Hari’s life than this: why
+should she become a spy? There can be little doubt that it was not for
+love of money, for, contrary to popular belief, a spy’s salary is
+miserably inadequate to the potential danger incurred. Of the actual
+payment to spies we have abundant evidence. Even during the war it was
+no more than a mere pittance, certainly not enough to tempt anyone who
+had other resources. Captain Estève, recruited in Barcelona, was
+furnished with 300 francs (about $60) in addition to his railway fare
+and sent to seek information in France. Sydnet, who toured an American
+vaudeville circuit as a gymnast, received 500 pesetas (about $100) to
+blow up Les Invalides! Spies in England occasionally received as much as
+$2,000 at a time, but this was considered high remuneration and had to
+satisfy them for some time. Such wretched payment, then, could be no
+temptation to Mata Hari, who could earn much more in the safety of
+vaudeville contracts and who had no lack of enthusiastic admirers ready
+and willing to compete for her favours and to provide her with every
+conceivable luxury. Her extravagance was colossal; she was accustomed to
+throw money out of the window, as the French say, and the only time she
+is known to have demanded money from German official sources was when
+she was stranded in Madrid.
+
+Major Massard, of the French staff, was of opinion that pride had caused
+Mata Hari to accept this dangerous employment. True, she loved to assert
+her power over men of influence, and we shall presently see that she had
+many opportunities to exercise this power over men in very high places.
+A high official in Spain who knew her well, and is among her stoutest
+defenders, thinks vanity could have seduced her if anything could have
+done so. She never was proof against her own vanity—happy the woman who
+is, and rare. Still another, and this man speaks with authority, since
+he watched her closely through several years as a counter-espionage
+agent, told the writer:
+
+“She was probably inspired by a woman’s natural instinct to play with
+fire, a form of amusement which will endure so long as women are denied
+the means of letting off steam which men enjoy.” Then elaborating this
+opinion he went on: “Look at her life! It is one debauch after another
+and one debauch is much the same as another. There is nothing so
+completely satiating as a surfeit of unvarying pleasure, and the more
+intense it is the more quickly is satiety reached. All it does is to
+create a lust for fresh sensations, and once the palate has ceased to
+savour the delight of one form of pleasure, another must be found which
+will stimulate the jaded appetite. It requires a violent stimulant to
+gratify anyone who has drunk to the dregs from the cup of physical
+passion. Mata Hari found consolation in the thrills of dangerous
+intrigue when she began to lose interest in the older and more familiar
+pleasures. That is all.”
+
+Some or all of these emotions—love of power, the lust of an insatiable
+vanity, the quest of new physical thrills—might have had their part in
+impelling Mata Hari to undertake the work, but the simple truth is that
+she was a spy before she knew it, and, once begun, it was impossible to
+withdraw. In accepting employment with Abteilung III, the German
+intelligence service, a spy had the most exacting task-master, for once
+the agent became restive or his reports ceased to be useful from
+inaccuracy or inadequacy, the disciplinary action was severe and
+inevitable.
+
+The usual method was to send the delinquent some message in an
+indiscreet manner, so that it would fall into the enemy’s hands and so
+expose his activities to the authorities of the nation against whom he
+was working or against whom he refused to work. There are many known
+examples of this hateful practice; one, that of the beautiful Marussia
+Destrelles, a friend of Mata Hari’s, we shall give at some length in its
+proper place. A betterknown instance is that of Karl Graves, since it
+led to some discussion in the British House of Commons, although the
+replies then given to anxious patriots may not be taken too seriously,
+as will presently be seen.
+
+Dr. Karl Graves had performed some prodigies of secret-service work for
+the authorities of the Wilhelmstrasse. His most sensational feat in this
+direction was at Port Arthur, where he secured the information of
+Japanese movements which would have been of incalculable value to the
+Russian authorities had he not sent it directly to Berlin. He was also
+active in the Balkans during the first Balkan War. But for some reason
+the officials of Abteilung III became displeased with him and he was
+sent to England (or Scotland, to be exact), where an undisguised
+communication of a confidential nature addressed to him through the mail
+led to his arrest. It was frank betrayal and the English authorities
+knew it. So did Graves. Nevertheless, he was tried and sentenced to a
+sharp term of imprisonment. To those sensitive moralists who desire to
+know that retribution always overtakes the sinner it may be interesting
+to say that Karl Graves never served this sentence. The British
+Intelligence secured the release of this highly embittered man and
+provided him with employment—as a spy against his former employers! The
+British had extraordinary success in utilizing former enemy agents of
+outstanding merit in this way.
+
+It has been asserted by some of her admirers that Mata Hari only
+succumbed to a sudden temptation to undertake spying during the
+excitement of the war, when her employment as a vaudeville artist was
+restricted, but this can easily be disproved. To begin with, the system
+of numbering spies betrayed her pre-war enrollment. No spy is known,
+even to the higher officials, by name. They are invariably addressed and
+known by a number. Mata Hari was H21. The enlargement of the service
+during the war made necessary an alteration in the system of numbering,
+so that the headquarters of the spy and the nation against whom he was
+operating would be easily recognized by those who had to collate
+reports. Spies recruited during the war received a symbol composed of
+two letters and a number. The first letter was the initial of the town
+where their headquarters was situated, and the second letter was the
+initial of the name of the country in which they worked. Had Mata Hari
+been enrolled during the war she would have received the symbol AF,
+followed by a number, representing the initials of the words Antwerp and
+France (Andversen and Frankreich in German).
+
+The second piece of material evidence of her earlier employment as a spy
+is the simple fact that the British authorities were well aware of her
+activities long before the outbreak of war. In fact, the French did not
+“discover” her. They only began to take her under surveillance when she
+was signalled to them by the British service. So well was she watched by
+the men from London that Mata Hari was under no illusion about their
+recognition of her labours. No sooner did she betray any interest in an
+English officer than he was warned of his danger or was transferred
+quickly to some spot remote from her wiles and baleful influence.
+
+Before proceeding to describe how Mata Hari became entangled in the
+toils of secret intrigues let us pause in her story long enough to see
+how the German authorities secured their recruits in times of peace.
+Mention has been made of a Greek, Constantine Coudoyannis, who was known
+in the London and Paris _demi-monde_ as Count Costa de Smyrnos. Before
+his self-elevation to the nobility Count Costa was a pedlar who tramped
+through France, Belgium, and Germany as far as the Prussian capital.
+When the Count reviewed his past he surveyed as fine a standing crop of
+wild oats as the limited means of a pedlar would permit him to
+cultivate. Visiting the Prussian capital, he decided to take a day off
+from peddling in order to view the _haut-monde_, and was enjoying a
+casual stroll down the Unter den Linden when, in his own parlance, he
+was “pinched” by the police for some inexplicable reason. His elastic
+conscience was under no strain, for his last delinquency could not have
+attracted the attention of the awe-inspiring police of the capital. To
+the pedlar’s amazement he was not conducted to a police station, but to
+an imposing apartment in the official quarter. There, to his
+consternation, he was confronted with a very minute account of his petty
+larcenies and rascalities committed in various other countries.
+
+The dignified police official who interviewed him on the subject was a
+worthy man who was roused to a pitch of fury by the mere recital of
+these misdemeanours; he stormed and thundered at the terrified pedlar in
+the name of outraged law and order, informing him that the French and
+Belgian authorities (this was before the war) demanded his extradition
+in order to provide condign punishment for his long list of misdeeds.
+Having succeeded in reducing the pedlar to a state of terror at the
+prospect of spending his near future in a foreign prison, the burly
+uniformed officer began to coo as mildly as a dove. He informed the
+scared pedlar that the might of the German Empire might be enlisted to
+aid an accomplished linguist in return for certain services to be
+rendered at the expense of the two countries which sought to punish him.
+He was to become a German secret agent: the pedlar’s pack was to be
+abandoned and Constantine would become a man of means and leisure. The
+unhappy Greek left that house on the highroad to a self-chosen patent of
+nobility and, later, a firing-squad. As a pedlar he was gifted. He spoke
+several languages fluently and had a spy’s sacred respect for papers
+that were absolutely correct, in order that embarrassing questions might
+be avoided. It was his affection for papers of identity which had
+enabled the German police to track him over half of Europe, through most
+of his life’s history, and to concoct the story against him which
+induced the terrified man to undertake work that eventually led to his
+death.
+
+In considering the course of Mata Hari’s life in Berlin and the reasons
+which induced her to engage in the most desperate sport in the world,
+one should have in mind the declaration of von Kroon, one of the heads
+of German espionage in Spain, who, with admirable but tactless candour,
+said that they made use of Mata Hari because she was the only woman they
+knew who had the ability to cultivate intimacy and to secure the
+confidence of certain highly placed officials whose weakness made them
+excellent prospects for an intelligent secret agent. This is probably
+true. The methods they adopted in Mata Hari’s case will remain for all
+time the secret of the Berlin authorities, but their effects may be
+noted. The situation was this: Of ordinary spies they had an abundance
+and could recruit as many more as they required, but in the selection of
+the higher type of spies, those who could move with freedom among men in
+the highest official circles, their choice was severely restricted. Mata
+Hari’s well-known reputation as a courtesan showed that she had the
+means of entry to these circles; she was, therefore, admirably designed
+for the work. All that remained was to lure her into it. Her profession
+was to become her surest defence against suspicion at a later time; now
+it was the easiest means of attack.
+
+Mata Hari told her judges frankly how she came to make the acquaintance
+of Herr von Jagow, the chief of the Berlin police.
+
+“I met him at the music-hall where I was playing,” she said. “In Germany
+the police have the right to censor the costumes worn by the _artistes_
+and some one had thought that I was insufficiently clad. So the chief of
+police came to inspect my costume.”
+
+Now anyone who had experience of the German police during the heyday of
+the Empire will recall the position of dominating authority held by that
+official who commanded the police in the capital. He was an official of
+such unapproachable dignity and importance that the inspection of a
+dancer’s costume would positively have been the duty of his fourth or
+fifth assistant unless, of course, there was an excellent reason why the
+chief himself should undertake the task. In this case the dancer had a
+place in their wide schemes which made her the suitable subject for a
+personal visit.
+
+She proved a willing victim. In a short time she was recognized as an
+intimate friend of the police chief, so intimate that he had made
+himself responsible for providing her with an imposing apartment in
+Berlin. But the very nature of the gift betrays its significance. Again
+let us pause to glance at the German methods; it will furnish a clearer
+understanding of Mata Hari’s mission.
+
+Mata Hari played a part in the compilation of one of the most amazing
+_Who’s Who_ ever revealed to the eyes of the public. It was not intended
+for publication, far from it, but a clever agent employed by the British
+got possession of the only known copy from under the nose of the German
+secret service and the London authorities permitted the publication of
+extracts as a solemn warning against the cultivation of friendships with
+foreigners who might not scruple to abuse confidences. This book was the
+accumulation of all the gossip, scandal, sins, personal weaknesses,
+delinquencies, and domestic infelicities of influential people,
+collected by spies, amateur and professional, which Germany employed
+against England. The preparation of the book lasted over many years, but
+it seems never to have served the purpose for which it was intended. It
+was the intention of the Berlin authorities to use this knowledge of a
+man’s hidden past in order to blackmail the victim into furnishing aid
+or information not otherwise obtainable. The numerous agents who
+collected the information for the volume must have been singularly
+credulous, for most of the biographies were pure fiction and would not
+have been of the slightest value in a time of need. The extracts
+published so distorted the truth that they were received with derision.
+
+These, however, applied to well-known people whose lives were more or
+less public property. Some of the matter included was not quite so
+ridiculous, especially in the lives of the younger and less known
+officials who had occasion to visit Berlin and fall into the
+acquaintance of Mata Hari and her kind. The method of obtaining this
+information is interesting. The luxurious apartment furnished for her
+occupation in the exclusive neighbourhood of the Wilhelmstrasse was an
+expensive residence even for one of Mata Hari’s reputation. This famous
+“Green House” was one of Stieber’s legacies to the German police. It had
+played its part in Bismarckian days in entangling many unwilling victims
+in the web of the Iron Chancellor’s policies. The cost of its
+maintenance came from the funds allocated for secret service, and the
+servants were all, or nearly all, police agents. Skilfully engineered
+introductions to the right people enabled Mata Hari to entertain the
+victims of the police curiosity, and since their chief was a man of
+magnanimous parts he permitted these same victims to share the favours
+of his mistress. Having introduced the victim into her web, Mata Hari
+would stage one of those sensual orgies for which she was famous, and
+the police agents were granted unlimited opportunity to secure
+substantial blackmail evidence to be filed away pending the time when it
+would be required for their schemes. French, Italian, and Russian
+officers were treated by this Delilah with fine impartiality. It is
+remarked that Mata Hari had little luck with the English.
+
+This is not altogether evidence of the sobriety or chastity of the
+English officials, because they had the somewhat unfair advantage over
+the lady of having one of their agents employed in the house. For many
+years, whenever Mata Hari tried to approach an English agent she was
+rudely repulsed, yet it never seems to have dawned upon her employers
+that there might be an excellent reason why she should invariably fail
+with the men of this nation.
+
+Nor were all her activities restricted to Berlin. One of the tragedies
+of the war was that of a jolly Dutchman called Hoegnagel, who was
+recommended by Mata Hari as a suitable recruit for the German service
+when they desired one. Hoegnagel was known to Mata from the time of her
+residence in The Hague; he was the type which interested her. He was the
+perfect example of henpecked husband whose pockets were cleaned out
+every night by a thrifty Dutch housewife, a practice which prevented him
+largely from indulging in the pleasures of the city which were his
+dearest joy. This weakness of his for pleasure with the handicap of an
+inquisitive and thrifty wife standing like a mounted policeman watching
+over his efforts to amuse himself had been reported to the German consul
+in The Hague by Mata Hari. While he remained in this city, Hoegnagel was
+no use to the German authorities, but when he announced to his friends
+in the Marine Club that he was compelled to make an extended visit to
+Paris on legitimate business, the unhappy man’s possibilities
+immediately presented themselves to the watchful consul, who offered him
+the amazing opportunity of enjoying the pleasures of the French capital
+without the careful Vrouw Hoegnagel being any the wiser or poorer.
+
+The Germans have frequently been reproached for their lack of ability to
+read psychology. They stumbled here when it seemed that they had judged
+remarkably well. Hoegnagel accepted the consul’s offer after a little
+hesitation. He was a neutral and did not readily agree to serve a
+belligerent country against another which had not merited his hatred.
+But the temptation was too strong. He did want to have a good time in
+Paris without his wife knowing about it. Where the psychology went
+astray was that the Germans had completely overlooked the effect of the
+astounding phenomenon of a Dutchman dispensing money with a liberality
+foreign to his race and habits. It immediately aroused the suspicion of
+the French police, who were not long in uncovering his activities.
+
+Incidentally, this man Hoegnagel has a special interest for American
+readers. Once his so-called journalistic activities were found to be
+directed toward informing the German authorities in Holland of the
+situation in Paris, a counter-espionage agent was deftly introduced into
+his little circle of intimate acquaintances. The agent talked
+confidentially of the influential people whom he knew and impressed
+Hoegnagel as a well-informed man. To him the Dutchman appealed for
+authentic information on a matter which was gravely exercising the
+Germans. Would America take an active part in the war? Would American
+soldiers be sent across the Atlantic to fight? The agent was doubtful,
+but, being anxious to help his friend, the pair went off to the Ministry
+of Foreign Affairs, where Hoegnagel was informed that President Wilson
+had informed his French friend, President Poincaré, that no American
+troops were to be expected in Europe, that the country was against such
+action.
+
+The unhappy Hoegnagel was shot at Vincennes in January, 1918. When he
+was awakened on the last morning of his life he said:
+
+“It is true, then? You are really going to shoot me? I have been a good
+father to my family and what has happened is only an unfortunate
+incident of travel.”
+
+“An unfortunate incident!” Is life itself not an unfortunate incident
+unduly prolonged? Even into the placid lives of jolly Dutchmen the evil
+genius of Mata Hari brought disaster and grief. Yet another of her
+victims was the officer of the Russian Guard, Michaelovitch, who was a
+former student of the Dresden Polytechnic and who succumbed to this
+blackmail of the Berlin police through the instrumentality of Mata Hari.
+Later, he was shot for selling photographs of airplanes in the Hanriot
+plant to a Spaniard called Estrada, an agent of Major von Bulow, who
+controlled an espionage service from the chancellery in Berne.
+
+Not all her entertainments were for the relatively innocuous purpose of
+collecting blackmailing evidence, which, by the way, proved so
+ineffective. There were other occasions when men, entrusted with highly
+confidential missions, were received by Mata Hari and during the course
+of the entertainment she contrived to extract from their lips not only
+wine-scented kisses, but secrets which sent them into obscure German
+fortresses, from which they departed in complete ignorance of their
+betrayer. One of the cleverest officers of the French army staff,
+visiting Germany on an unofficial secret mission, was among the Red
+Dancer’s victims. During a night of foolish indiscretion he confided his
+secret to her. The Berlin secret police had suspected the object of his
+visit and had deliberately turned him over to their invaluable tool, who
+successfully executed the work entrusted to her. The unhappy officer
+went insane during his imprisonment when he realized the extent of his
+folly.
+
+The great majority of the highly-coloured adventures attributed to Mata
+Hari in this house of secret panels, revolving mirrors, and tapped
+telephone wires have no semblance of truth, but one incident is worth
+recalling, since it illustrates the extraordinary workings of these
+secret police. For obvious reasons names are withheld.
+
+The incident happened during the negotiations between France and Russia
+before the war. At that time the combined secret police of those
+countries maintained a headquarters in Germany, which, in addition to
+gathering information, had to protect the couriers bearing important
+messages and documents. On this occasion a Russian courier bearing the
+draft of a secret treaty was announced to pass through Berlin on his way
+to Paris, _via_ Brussels, and the agents were warned to give him every
+protection, since it was imperative that the treaty should not
+prematurely be divulged.
+
+On arrival in Berlin the courier went directly to the Embassy and
+deposited his diplomatic pouch in a special safe in the Embassy. Now, it
+was known to the Russian officials that this safe had a leak in it
+somewhere through which information of its contents filtered. The secret
+watchers, therefore, had a double problem to face which perplexed them.
+Either their government, knowing how insecure the hiding-place was,
+wished, for their own purpose, to allow the German authorities to know
+what was in the pouch, or it was the duty of the watchers to guard the
+safe rigorously in order to prevent the individual who made illicit use
+of it from inspecting the highly confidential document deposited in it.
+Either line of argument led away from the courier, who retained the
+draft treaty in his possession, secreted on his person.
+
+As it was desired to allow this officer to proceed without attracting
+attention to his movements, he had been instructed to travel leisurely,
+and it was his intention to spend a few days in Berlin, where he had
+many acquaintances among the officers of the garrison. He made directly
+for the Adlon Hotel, a noted hostelry for officers of all nations who
+chanced to be in the Prussian capital. His German acquaintances were
+glad to have the opportunity of entertaining their rare visitor, and he
+was assured that they would make his visit memorable. Mata Hari was sent
+for to make up the party, and they proceeded to enjoy what the capital
+had to offer in the way of amusement.
+
+At Mata Hari’s suggestion they all adjourned to her apartment, where she
+promised to furnish entertainment such as no cabaret could supply, and
+which, being private, would allow them to act with greater freedom and
+incur less subsequent gossip. Before the time for dinner had arrived the
+courier had sent to the railroad station for his baggage and had it
+brought to Mata Hari’s apartment. He was assigned as valet one of the
+police agents who brought his baggage from the station. As soon as the
+courier went to his room to dress for dinner the valet begged for a pen
+to enter some details on a baggage receipt which he produced. The
+courier hesitated for a moment but after some little difficulty in
+withdrawing it from his pocket lent the fountain pen he carried to the
+man. As the servant was writing at the dressing-table he saw in the
+mirror that the courier kept him covered with a pistol concealed under
+his jacket. The courier at this stage was fully awake to his danger.
+
+Now, the valet returned _a_ pen, not _the_ pen he had borrowed from the
+Russian, but the movement was made so innocently that the latter merely
+glanced at the pen to be sure it was his before restoring it to his
+pocket. Without question he also pocketed the receipt. When he awakened
+next morning his room was in wild disorder, but since he felt as if a
+hive of bees and the combined bands of the Guards Division had taken up
+residence inside his head, the condition of his discarded clothing was
+not surprising. He only retained vague recollections of the earlier
+stages of the previous night’s debauch, while its termination was a
+complete blank. The one thing which most concerned him was the safety of
+his fountain pen. It was still intact. But the unwise guest had a sudden
+access of virtue and the recollection of his duty which determined him
+to leave Berlin without delay. Meanwhile, the wildly perplexed German
+secret police were frantically scouring the city for the draft of the
+secret treaty which they had been informed by friends in St. Petersburg
+was carried by this courier. They had photographs of all his other
+papers, but none bore the slightest resemblance to the missing document.
+
+The still blissful Russian was kept under constant surveillance as far
+as Aix-la-Chapelle, where the German agents finally gave up their job in
+the belief that this man was not the messenger they sought. Once across
+the Belgian border, the courier heaved a sigh of relief; the hunt must
+be reduced to one or two men now; but, he reflected, if that night of
+unconsciousness had exposed him to the utmost risk without his secret
+being betrayed, these few men who continued to watch him could be
+circumvented by his more discreet behaviour. He avoided all the pitfalls
+of the delightful Belgian capital and spent the time in _bourgeoise_
+simplicity. On the second night he was returning from the Théâtre de la
+Monnaie when the valet who had attended him in Berlin suddenly stepped
+out of the darkness with his hand extended.
+
+“Monsieur, it has been a long chase, but at last I have succeeded in
+overtaking you. When I borrowed your pen the other night I had the
+misfortune to confuse it with my own, and I now beg you to make an
+exchange which will restore the pens to their rightful owners.”
+
+He offered a fountain pen of identically the same make as that which the
+courier drew from his pocket. The language the horrified man used was
+appropriate to the occasion.
+
+“It is useless to argue, monsieur. This is your pen. If you will take
+the trouble to examine the bottom you will find your draft treaty intact
+and I can give you the positive assurance that its terms are unknown to
+the German authorities.”
+
+“But ... but you are, then, one of their secret police?” stammered the
+astonished Russian.
+
+“I was, monsieur, until this morning. I have resigned without taking the
+trouble to send my resignation through the usual channels. Probably it
+will not be necessary now.”
+
+Careful examination of the pen proved it to be the original containing
+the treaty, written on thin rice paper and cunningly concealed in the
+tube. If the terms of the treaty were unknown to the German officials
+they must have been acceptable to still another power, for no protest
+ever came from the nation whose secret agent had protected the draft
+during the Russian’s drunken sleep and who had been able to photograph
+it for the benefit of his own employers while making a pretence of
+searching for it for the Berlin authorities.
+
+It is not often that any country succeeds in placing its agents in the
+secret police of another, but they had been able to do so in this case.
+
+
+
+
+                            _Chapter Seven_
+
+
+Useful as her activities in Berlin were, Mata Hari was only serving her
+novitiate for the more important work she was to undertake abroad. The
+main object of her Berlin employment was to get her so deeply involved
+in the intricate web of Machiavellian intrigue that withdrawal was
+impossible without the risk of being denounced to those countries whose
+agents had been the victims of her fatal power of fascination. Once
+engaged in this dangerous pastime there is very little opportunity to
+withdraw should the agent’s services still be useful. Denunciation was a
+favourite trick of punishment for recalcitrant spies. The case of Karl
+Graves has already been mentioned in this respect, and the French assert
+that they have conclusive proof that no less than fourteen of “Mlle.
+Doktor’s” agents were exposed to them by that lady herself, either
+because they had ceased to be useful to her or because they required
+disciplining.
+
+Having caught her wings in the web of police intrigue, Mata Hari was
+sent, sometime about 1910, to Lorrach, in Bavaria, where the authorities
+conducted a regular spies’ “academy.” Here she received a finishing
+course in the delicate art. During the war much of the spy’s training
+had to be of a hasty and improvised character, but before the war the
+German spy schools enjoyed a sinister reputation because of their
+thoroughness in instruction, the exacting discipline, and the harsh
+punishments inflicted on the graduates who blundered. In the latter case
+officers who made mistakes were sent for a period of imprisonment in the
+grim fortresses of Königsberg and Spandau. During the war no effort was
+made to inflict minor punishments. Unsatisfactory spies were simply sent
+on an unimportant errand and then betrayed by intentional indiscretion
+to the enemy and left to stew in their own juice.
+
+The training in these schools was mostly restricted to the Intelligence
+departments of the army and navy; the men of the Personal Corps (under
+the control of the Foreign Office) rarely sent their men to them except
+for special training. Until the war made the necessity of employing
+neutrals desirable the students at the spy academy were usually
+recruited from selected groups of army and navy reservists possessing
+the necessary personal qualifications for the work. If one wishes to
+understand how so many of the hastily recruited war spies proved unequal
+to the tasks imposed upon them, one needs to know only what
+qualifications were sought in the men who were to be trained technically
+for espionage. It is a formidable array. The recruit had to possess the
+natural qualifications of discretion, tact, courage, patience, quick
+wit, keen intellect, resource, imagination, industry, intuition, and—an
+easy conscience. When these qualities were found in a man, he was then
+instructed in the requisite specialized knowledge.
+
+That espionage was considered an honourable calling is shown by the high
+rank of some of the men who engaged in it. The hall porter at the
+popular Hôtel des Indes at The Hague, during war-time, was the brother
+of the Baron von Wangenheim, ambassador to Turkey; the chief spy in
+Vienna in 1914 was Prince Kraft zu Hohenlohe Ingelfingen, and a famous
+resident spy in Paris was the son of Prince Ratibor, ambassador to
+Spain. None the less, the heads of the German secret service repeatedly
+employed international crooks to secure information which could not
+otherwise be obtained.
+
+At Lorrach the pupils were given instruction in such essential details
+as the use of codes and ciphers, methods of passing on information, etc.
+Added to this was certain highly technical knowledge, such as the
+measuring of heights and distances, the calculation of angles, and the
+description of topographical features. In 1914, just before the war, a
+German agent operating in England, working without instruments (which
+would have attracted attention), but simply by pacing distances and
+calculating heights, got a very accurate picture of the dimensions of a
+new bridge of considerable strategic importance. His account of this
+bridge, its capacity, strength, use, and resistance to explosives was
+surprisingly complete. Such knowledge is often of primary importance,
+as, for instance, in America during the early stages of the war, when
+confidential information was of less value than the destruction of
+material which was intended for Allied use.
+
+Then there were the subtle mannerisms and national traits which the spy
+had to study. These formed a very difficult part of the curriculum,
+because usually the idiosyncrasies which lead to betrayal are of such
+trifling nature that they are difficult to detect. During the war one
+very skilled Allied agent was trapped through an amazingly small detail.
+He was travelling as a duly accredited representative of an established
+Berlin commercial house. Lunching one day in Munich, he casually
+murmured, “Thank you,” each time the waitress served him with a fresh
+dish. This trifling courtesy made the waitress suspicious that he was
+not what he pretended to be, because German salesmen do not usually
+bestow such courtesy upon unprepossessing waitresses. She reported her
+suspicions to the police, and their investigations justified them in
+arresting the agent. To this day French agents are cautioned against
+displaying their national politeness while operating in certain
+countries.
+
+It was in these details that the war-time instruction failed woefully.
+Some of the spies betrayed themselves by sheer stupidity in their guile.
+There was the ingenious gentleman (or was it a lady?) who had been
+accustomed to send secret information from behind the Allied lines in
+Flanders by means of pigeons. Discovering that orders had been issued
+that all pigeons were to be shot, this imaginative spy was nonplussed
+until he hit upon the happy idea of disguising a pigeon as a parrot in
+order to make it inconspicuous. An inconspicuous parrot in Flanders!
+
+The French records show that no less than three spies were betrayed by
+their inability to pronounce the “v” in _vingt_. Such a deficiency would
+have been remedied in peace-time training.
+
+Mata Hari was by no means the only woman trained at Lorrach. When she
+went there, a training method had already been devised for women. Unlike
+other nations who rarely employ women when men are available, Germany
+has a predilection for women spies. One woman (who incidentally was
+director of spy-training at one time) has become a figure of fable in
+spy annals, and as she was director of the Zone of Interior, and thus
+Mata Hari’s chief during the war, her picture is worth studying.
+
+This woman’s identity has been enshrouded in mystery even to her own
+colleagues. Known to the British as Frau von Heinrichsen and to the
+French as Mlle. Doktor, she inspired respect as a terribly dangerous
+opponent in her enemies and a terrible fear in her subordinates. Of all
+the women who were employed in the dangerous game during the war, none
+rose to such spectacular heights as the blond demon who directed the
+Zone of Interior from Antwerp. The dashing Mata Hari may have surrounded
+herself with a more resplendent aura of romance; Louise de Bettignies,
+the sweet-faced aristocrat who peddled laces while organizing the
+British secret service in Belgium and died of typhus in a German prison,
+may be better entitled to the title of martyr for her country; the
+pretty Marussia Destrelles may excite more pity; but the woman whom
+Colonel Nicholai (head of German espionage) called the “mistress of
+spies” holds undisputed rank among the mightiest and most powerful.
+
+Before being engulfed in the anonymity which obscures the secret-service
+agent she was Maria Ann Lesser, daughter of a prosperous fine-art dealer
+in Berlin whose reputation extended beyond the limits of his own
+country. His was a well-known figure at Christie’s and the Hôtel Drouot.
+At school Maria showed that she was possessed of a superior
+intelligence, with a decided flair for languages, which her father
+decided to develope by taking the girl with him on his trips abroad, so
+that she might perfect her accent. One of these business trips took Herr
+Lesser to St. Petersburg, where he was negotiating for the sale of
+pictures. The outcome of this journey had a more lasting effect upon
+secret-service technique than it had upon the fine arts, for it led to
+Maria’s introduction to the art of spying.
+
+Maria Lesser’s claims to beauty have been disputed. Many people have
+firmly advanced the claim that she was possessed of great physical
+attractions, but the only time I ever saw her she was little better than
+a besotted drab without any attractiveness and nothing noteworthy except
+a pair of uncommonly keen eyes which were not altogether pleasant. A
+German officer, who had served under her and showed no other spark of
+kindliness for his former chief, described her to me as having that
+special type of blond beauty which appeals to the Teuton mind—blond,
+with regular features, rich red lips, a pink-and-white complexion, and
+dark eyes. At the time of her first visit to St. Petersburg, when she
+was only seventeen, it is conceded that Maria was a very attractive
+girl. This seems to be proved by her popularity and her subsequent
+success over two sophisticated men.
+
+One of these was the military _attaché_, a dashing Prussian cavalryman,
+who completely turned Maria’s head, and when Herr Lesser returned to
+Berlin, Maria remained behind with her soldier lover. In the little
+apartment which they occupied, the proud and happy girl so gained the
+admiration of her lover that he confided to her some of his official
+worries. The Russian artillery were being issued a new gun, and the
+German authorities were clamouring for a description of the weapon, but
+the Russians had shown a disinclination to be obliging (a new trait in
+that easy-going and corrupt bureaucracy, accustomed to supplying, for a
+price, anything the Germans wanted). In order to satisfy the demands of
+the home authorities Maria’s lover displayed a fine magnanimity. He
+loaned Maria to a Russian officer who was willing to pay for the girl’s
+favours by indiscreetly revealing all that her lover wished to know
+about the new gun.
+
+This action of betraying a girl and then luring her into the secret
+service has become a familiar part of the technique of so many German
+spies. The story of espionage is full of similar cases. In the case of
+Maria Ann Lesser her lover saw that she had the making of a superior
+secret agent, so he sent her to Abteilung III with the recommendation
+that she be trained for Intelligence work. There may have been a private
+clause in the recommendation, for the officer to whom it was addressed
+took the girl under his own protection. Together they visited the
+Italian manœuvres, where Maria Lesser probably first met Mata Hari, who
+also was attending this military exercise under royal protection.
+
+Maria Lesser was trained at Lorrach and then entrusted with independent
+missions which were accomplished with the touch of a master hand. She
+was then recalled to the training-school, where she instructed the
+students. Drawing upon her own experience, Maria taught her women pupils
+that, while spying was a game in which they would get no credit if they
+were successful and no mercy if they failed, it had its own recompense.
+She warned them that it demanded every sacrifice, even to death; that it
+was a rough-and-tumble game in which virtue was a bagatelle of value
+only as a stake to gain their end.
+
+“If you are not over-scrupulous,” she said, “if you love adventure, a
+spy’s life is filled with interest.”
+
+When war was declared Maria Lesser had to receive recognition for her
+brilliant qualities. She was made director of espionage over the areas
+behind the forward zones, with headquarters at Antwerp. Her territory
+included England and that part of France not occupied by the advanced
+troops. In this work her energy was unbelievable. She had to overcome
+the natural repugnance of officers, even high officers, receiving orders
+and instructions from a woman, and to acquire their respect she made use
+of ruthless measures. Twice her agents sent reports of the tanks while
+they were still a closely guarded secret. Maria Lesser sent these
+reports to an ordnance expert who regarded them as fantastic and absurd,
+the kind of bogey a silly woman would conjure up to annoy busy men. But
+when the time came that the tanks became an unpleasant reality Maria had
+her reply ready. She sent copies of her reports, with the expert’s
+contemptuous comments on the margins, and an automatic pistol to the
+unhappy man who had ignored her warnings. He took the hint and blew out
+his brains rather than endure a woman’s contempt.
+
+There was also the case of Joseph Marks. This poor fellow was arrested
+several times on trumped-up charges of treachery which he always managed
+to disprove. But at last Maria Lesser told him that if he wished to
+prove his loyalty he must undertake a mission to England to ascertain
+some naval information required by her department. Poor Marks was too
+scared to refuse and too scared to act. He even failed to pass the first
+barrier, and when arrested expressed his profound gratitude to the
+English police for sending him to prison, where he was at least safe
+from “that terrible woman.”
+
+Most tragic of all was the case of a daring young Belgian belonging to
+that amazing organization of Belgian patriots who maintained an
+efficient system of counter-espionage throughout the entire war. This
+man succeeded in obtaining Maria Lesser’s confidence and eventually
+became her intimate assistant. He was thus able to confound much of
+Maria’s scheming until his zeal and devotion proved his undoing. A very
+highly trusted spy was dispatched to France on a more than usually
+delicate mission, entailing much careful preparation. He was arrested
+instantly on arrival. Two days later Maria received news that her
+trusted agent had been seized. She sent for her Belgian subordinate and
+informed him that there were only two persons in the world who had known
+the man was a spy—she and her assistant. The spy had been betrayed and
+one of them had done it, one of those two must suffer. She calmly drew
+an automatic out of the drawer of her desk and killed her subordinate.
+
+In Antwerp she was established in a sumptuous suite of rooms, where she
+interviewed her agents when they were ready to undertake the missions to
+which she allotted them. In Major Massard’s _Espionnes de Paris_ there
+is an account of such an interview which merits quotation because of the
+side-light it throws on her character. Arrived in her office, the agent
+was subjected to a careful scrutiny and then to a long and searching
+examination as to his qualifications. Finally Maria addressed him:
+
+“You are a resourceful young man, qualified to give a good account of
+yourself in an emergency. You have a superior education and can speak
+several languages. That is very good so far as it goes, but it is not
+enough. You must be alert, adaptable, obedient, brave, and audacious. Do
+you possess those qualities? I am a student of physiognomy and I believe
+you do. You will experience many difficulties in this profession, but
+before long you will find it absorbing. If you are not one who pays too
+much attention to unnecessary scruples and who likes adventure you will
+find the life highly interesting. It is so with me. I would not
+surrender my position to fill a throne, because it furnishes me with all
+the mental satisfaction I could wish for; it enables me to deal on equal
+footing with men of the highest rank.
+
+“I have one essential recommendation to make concerning your conduct. Be
+sober, chaste, and keep good hours. It is in the early hours of morning
+and the late hours of night that one’s movements are most easily
+observed. Go to places of pleasure if you wish, but avoid entangling
+alliances, because, remember, every country employs counter-spies, and
+the most dangerous of all are the women one meets in those places. Let
+me remind you of your instructions. Be most circumspect in your schemes.
+Organize every step in your journeys with the greatest care for detail.
+Miss nothing in your study of the character and resources of the people
+you encounter, and everywhere you go print in your memory a picture of
+the place. As you have been advised, train your memory so that you do
+not have to take notes, put as little as possible into writing, and in
+all your messages use only the code we have given you. Finally, destroy
+everything you receive from us as soon as you have read it.”
+
+At the conclusion of the war the German authorities had no further use
+for Maria’s services. Her former colleagues and chiefs were superseded
+in power. The Socialists who had seized power in the country had too
+often been under her baleful supervision to have any affection for her.
+But spying was in her blood, she could not surrender its hold, and she
+was terribly embittered by her treatment. For Maria had deserved well of
+her country. Twice during the hardest times of war she penetrated the
+British counter-espionage barriers and visited London, walking
+repeatedly along Pall Mall, past the service clubs where her enemies
+took their ease, when they had any. Therefore, she had to remain a spy,
+although she had now inherited a comfortable fortune through the death
+of her father.
+
+But what was probably the deciding factor in Maria’s latest service was
+her weakness for drugs. By the time the war was over she had become the
+slave of narcotics. One of her former enemies offered to ensure a supply
+of her favourite drug if she would undertake espionage work for him, and
+that is how I came to see Maria Ann Lesser sinking into a drugged sleep
+in the headquarters of one of the armies of occupation on the Rhine.
+Since then she has ceased to be of value to any power. If she still
+lives it is in an asylum in Switzerland where drug addicts dream their
+last.
+
+Maria Ann Lesser was Mata Hari’s chief; not her immediate chief—that was
+Major Specht in Amsterdam. The pair worked together until the French
+counter-espionage service broke up the alliance between the two most
+terrible women spies of history, and Mata Hari owed much of her training
+to the other woman.
+
+After her graduation from Lorrach, Mata Hari had to be restored to her
+position as a vaudeville “star” and equipped to resume her position as a
+courtesan, so that she might exercise her newly developed talent. With
+official assistance she embarked on what was to be the existence of a
+super-spy, probably the most accomplished and dangerous spy of the
+century. Those who met her at this time were surprised to find that she
+was doing her utmost to obliterate all traces of her Paris associations
+in the cultivation of Teutonic airs and manners. A visitor to Naples
+remarked at the time, after having talked with her in that city during
+1907 (before her enrollment in the secret service), that she was
+threatening to renounce the cult of her favourite god, Siva, and to
+become a good Berlinoise, speaking German with an exaggerated accent.
+But she could never altogether renounce Paris: she returns to it again
+and again, and as the years go by she comes back to it as a spy. But now
+her relations with the high aristocracy of Germany have made her
+ambitious of social rank; she begins to sign her letters “Lady MacLeod.”
+Any of her noble admirers might have informed her that this form of
+signature betrayed her lack of title to it. It was a confession of
+ignorance. Her posthumous admirers have tried to establish her right to
+the title by marriage, but Campbell MacLeod neither inherited nor
+acquired a title.
+
+She continued to travel from one city to another. She became a familiar
+figure at army manœuvres, where she was invariably the cherished
+companion of some highly-placed officer, her purpose unsuspected because
+of her notoriety. Scarcely any capital of Europe escaped her poisonous
+presence. Like her favourite reptile, the serpent, the slime of her
+writhing body coiled from one city to another, leaving its track of
+debauchery and treacherous betrayal. One of her romantic biographers has
+placed on her lips a terrible commentary on her success.
+
+  At the moment I am a queen with my courtiers.... Ginoceli, with his
+  hyena’s snout and his swindler’s mien, will never miss seeing me for a
+  day, even if I was in hell. And Crevard, the millionaire, who sets a
+  price on everything, would sell his God if he could find a buyer....
+  And Baron Clavenmoor, as puritanical outside as he is licentious
+  within.... Bah, their jewels and their flowers weary me. Beauty
+  carries with it a curse. Men are vile! They who adore me would devour
+  each other for my smiles. The Grand Duke Basil is transformed into a
+  Nero when he is drunk—disgusting. And the Kaiser’s friend, General von
+  Zwanzig, former general of the Guard, one has but to see him eat to
+  know what manner of man he is.[2]
+
+Footnote 2:
+
+  _La chèvre aux pieds d’or_, by Chas. H. Hirsch. Paris.
+
+It is not a pretty picture, but it is Mata Hari. And it pleases this
+excellent writer to place her in the position of complaining that
+flattery sickened her, that the hot caresses of these monsters froze
+her, as part of the character she was playing. Yet Mata Hari never tried
+to avoid them. She hunted them, pursued them without ceasing, and there
+were few men whom she chose to make her victims who tried to resist the
+modern Circe.
+
+Some of those who knew Mata Hari most intimately have declared that from
+the beginning of her career she had the presentiment that her life was
+to be a tissue of magic and unpredictable events. At the apogee of her
+career, when she had at her feet men of power, influence, and wealth
+from all parts of Europe, it would seem that her dream of being the idol
+on some strange altar had been realized. Her progress from one
+engagement to another was a triumphal procession over a flower-carpeted
+path, her state was very nearly regal, for princes met in her rooms, and
+ambassadors forgot their cares when she offered them consolation in
+forgetfulness. And yet there was an occult warning of destiny which
+menaced her with black anguish, a vague fear of obscure events which
+overcast the future. To her most cherished friend of the period she
+wrote: “Protect me from so many things which may do me evil and which
+tempt me from a desire to work.”
+
+Of her first steps in the practice of espionage very little is known,
+since their exponent is dead and the German authorities have good and
+sufficient reason to be and to remain reticent. We must pass over some
+years while the twinkling feet of the Red Dancer carry the lovely body
+toward Paris on her final phase, _Nach Paris_. These two words have
+become synonymous with German Nemesis.
+
+The first of her known spy activities show that she was employed upon
+the extensive scheme in which high finance and low morality each had
+their part, one of Germany’s most expensive failures. It is now a
+well-known fact that the Berlin authorities made a vigorous effort to
+control and direct a substantial current of public opinion in France
+through the daily press. The familiar story has been exposed in the
+prosecution of Caillaux, Humbert, Almeyreda, Bolo, and Malvy, charged
+with complicity in the effort to purchase influential journals with
+German capital for the purpose of spreading Germanophile ideas. Mata
+Hari played an inconspicuous part in the intrigue from its inception. In
+1912, when she was on one of her visits to Paris, Mata Hari made
+strenuous efforts to learn something of the inner workings of Parisian
+journalism, what journals were in need of financing, where pressure
+could be applied to obtain financial control, and to ascertain what were
+the Berlin sources of information. In this rôle she was completely
+overshadowed by her colleague, Almeyreda, for, while he succeeded in
+reaching the font of policy, Mata Hari lingered with the journalists
+themselves. This was the more flattering to her vanity, since the
+cultivation of journalistic friendships produced favourable notices in
+the press, but it was not particularly useful to her employers because
+the editorial-writers do not frame policies and have nothing to do with
+the control of the journals which they help to produce.
+
+In one respect alone was she really successful. She did learn the names
+of the Berlin correspondents whom it was hoped to influence at times of
+international storm and stress so that German ideas would be favourably
+exposed before the French public. Unprejudiced comment was not welcomed
+in the tortuous policies which Germany employed in the anxious years
+which preceded the war. If the Berlin correspondents failed to respond
+to the official overtures, the blame cannot be laid on Mata Hari, who
+had done her duty in revealing the men who should have been influenced.
+
+An interesting reminiscence of her methods at the time is given by a
+French journalist, one of the men whom she invited, unsuccessfully in
+this case, to furnish her with information. He recalls being invited in
+the year 1913 to her villa at Neuilly, which was surrounded by a high
+wall to prevent prying eyes from witnessing the dances without costume
+in the moonlight, which the dancer informed him she used to perform for
+the benefit of her guests. This portion of her story was verified; the
+rest was not. She explained that she was waiting for a divorce from her
+husband. One day she appeared at the rooms of the journalist with tears
+running down her cheeks. She told a pitiful story of having been beaten
+by her husband, and to prove her words exhibited bare flesh on which
+were several horrible bruises. The writer advised her to see a lawyer
+friend of his who would be able to provide her with professional advice,
+but he positively refused to have anything to do with her attempt to
+cultivate pity as a means of being admitted to the secrets of the press.
+He was suspicious of her motives, knew that she had not been in
+communication with her former husband, and, besides, could see that the
+bruises on her body were the result of art and not brutality. It was no
+surprise to him when he learned that she made no effort to see the
+lawyer.
+
+So little did the Germans trust their spies that each one was placed
+under the unseen supervision of a more trusted agent, who in turn had
+his supervisor. In this way the slightest deviation from the strict path
+of duty was followed by denunciation to the authorities against whom
+they were operating. One cannot take risks with a spy inclined to
+treachery. Mata Hari was placed under the willing charge of a German
+nobleman, who, while ostensibly her “protector,” provided her with an
+expensive villa in Neuilly, the fashionable suburb of Paris, where she
+soon began to collect her friends. At first there was no effort to
+conceal the relations between the baron and his friend, but when his
+purpose was served and Mata Hari had established more advantageous
+relations with French officials, the German nobleman moved out of the
+picture; it was emphatically not part of his duties to monopolize the
+favours of the spy.
+
+Again let us glance at the methods of the German secret service to
+appreciate why Mata Hari was encouraged to practise her profession as a
+courtesan. At first thought it would appear that a spy’s duty is to be
+as inconspicuous as possible and to avoid any entanglement which would
+attract suspicion, rather than to court the full glare of publicity.
+This is the argument of the unsophisticated. Most of the successful
+spies, the super-spies, have all occupied positions which brought them
+much before the public. Witness the example of Trebitsch Lincoln, who
+served as a member of the British Parliament while in the pay of the
+German secret service.
+
+Contrary to belief, a spy’s main difficulty is not in finding out
+things, but in forwarding the information he has collected. Anyone who
+has the average five senses can exercise them in obtaining the required
+information with very little attendant danger; the risk of exposure
+comes in transmitting it. Should the spy, however, make a false move and
+arouse suspicion, it is imperative to have a well-grounded and
+perfectly-rehearsed alibi. And it must not be too innocent. The
+prearranged excuse should have a convincing reason for furtive movements
+and suspicious efforts to avoid surveillance.
+
+The majority of the lesser spies sent out by Germany during the war were
+furnished in advance with the most singular excuses, rehearsed so that
+when produced to meet the occasion they would divert suspicion from the
+graver charge of espionage. Usually they were furnished with some
+article of German or Austrian manufacture or origin which was
+contraband. Narcotics were a favourite camouflage. If a spy carrying
+cocaine, heroin, or morphine were arrested on suspicion of spying he had
+an excellent excuse ready for his desire to avoid the authorities.
+
+“I am a smuggler, not a spy.”
+
+That expression became so familiar to the counter-espionage agent during
+the war that smuggling became almost synonymous with spying. But it was
+an infinitely better protection than the idiotic occupation assumed by
+some of the spies who operated in England. There, they insisted upon
+being cigar salesmen in a country where a cigar is a luxury and where an
+order on Amsterdam demanding 20,000 Coronas to be forwarded to Dover,
+where not more than 2,000 are smoked in one year, was a certain signal
+for an exodus of Scotland Yard men on the track of this super-salesman.
+The war years were the boom years for the cigar trade in England, but
+very few orders were executed. They were similarly the years when more
+drugs were imported into France than ever were consumed.
+
+At first the narcotic pedlars in France managed to slip past the
+vigilance of the Second Bureau, for the simple reason that they were
+pounced upon by the civil police and sent to serve prison terms before
+the secret service even knew of their existence. The usual parcel
+carried by the spy was a kilo (two pounds) of drug, which made their
+capture a cause for congratulations by the police. Alas! one of the
+spies went into his adopted trade too seriously and, having disposed of
+his genuine drug before capture, had to substitute some ground
+rice-flour for it. When the drug, which was his excuse for avoiding the
+police regulations, came to be examined and was found to lack
+pharmaceutical properties, the fat was in the fire. A man did not have
+to apologize for carrying and trying to sell rice-flour.
+
+This digression will explain why Mata Hari continued to follow her
+public profession as a courtesan in order to fulfil the requirements as
+a spy. The Amsterdam authorities stoutly maintained the cigar-selling
+myth, although it immediately betrayed the pseudo-salesmen. In Mata
+Hari’s case, however, it served a much better purpose to have an illicit
+occupation, since it brought her into direct relations with public men
+in a way which made investigation a matter of great delicacy.
+
+Even when she did come under suspicion, her rôle enabled her to escape
+detection time after time, to the intense annoyance of the Second
+Bureau, who were convinced of her guilt long before they could secure
+the material evidence which made a conviction reasonably certain.
+
+
+
+
+                            _Chapter Eight_
+
+
+On the day when war was declared between Germany and France Mata Hari
+was in Berlin. She lunched at the famous Adlon with her friend, the
+chief of the secret police, and since the hotel was the favourite resort
+of high officials, who now became popular idols in the enthusiasm of
+war, Mata basked in the reflected glory of her illustrious protector.
+The excited throng, hungering for a sight of their national heroes,
+surged about the famous restaurant to catch a glimpse of the leaders who
+happened to be eating there that day. Every minute saw the waiting crowd
+increase in size and the cheering swell in volume. When the time came
+for Mata Hari to emerge the crowd was in its best humour and gave Herr
+von Jagow, the prominent police officer, a rousing reception as he
+departed with the lady on his arm. But not all the population of the
+capital crowded into the street before the Adlon. Other, not less
+enthusiastic, groups paraded the streets singing songs of war. For once
+the active restraint of the Berlin police was relaxed, they took
+holiday. So did their chief. In an official car he made a tour of the
+excited city for the amusement of his companion, whom he proudly exposed
+to the populace, and, incidentally, to the foreign agents, who did not
+miss this indiscretion.
+
+Shortly after this occurrence Abteilung III began to have an uneasy
+suspicion that all was not well with their organization in Britain. For
+years the English people had grumbled in impotent anger against an
+indifferent police who permitted German agents to work unmolested in
+that country. Responsible officials received complaints of audacious
+spies with an airy disregard which amounted to a cynical indifference
+for the safety of the realm, much to the indignation of certain
+well-meaning people who missed no opportunity to draw attention to the
+alarming danger accompanying this apparent neglect. It was notorious
+that there was a considerable body of active spies operating with
+impunity in England. Yet as the first anxious days went by the Berlin
+authorities became aware of a paralyzing lethargy which had descended
+upon their agents. There was an absence of information relating to the
+mobilization of British troops and their departure for France. It had
+been taken for granted that the invasion of Belgium would cause these
+troops to be landed at one of the northern channel ports and would be
+attended with considerable risk if the right wing of the invading army
+moved expeditiously enough. The places of the anticipated landing were
+watched carefully without any sign of the expected enemy. As he
+approached these ports von Kluck threw out a cavalry corps to check any
+advance from that direction, but no sooner had his cavalry got into
+movement than the main German advance came up against a surprising
+enemy—British troops.
+
+The Germans had guessed wrong.
+
+Modern miracles in military strategy are frequently no more than the
+logical deductions from fragments of information furnished by spies,
+filtered through the special knowledge of the Intelligence officers and
+supplied to the high command for guidance. In this case the German
+Intelligence service did not have any secret source of supply to assist
+in the performance of miracles. Their long-established source had, in
+fact, miraculously dried up through the totally unexpected intervention
+of the notoriously complacent London police.
+
+During the night which succeeded Sir Edward Grey’s announcement of
+Britain’s intention to support her engagements to the extent of going to
+war, Scotland Yard had been fingering over its files, furbishing up its
+memories, and visiting its German acquaintances. Some time previously,
+when the Emperor William had last visited Buckingham Palace, he was
+accompanied by certain high officials, one of whom left the Palace to
+visit a barber in an obscure district. The mere fact that an important
+German official should make this strange visit puzzled the police
+because there is little in common between Buckingham Palace and the
+Caledonian Road. The statesman’s host proved to be a barber called
+Ernst, technically an Englishman by birth, but German by parentage. The
+police watched the barber very carefully for some time and found that he
+was the German Foreign Office’s “letter-box.” That is to say, he
+received from Berlin a bundle of letters with English stamps already
+affixed, which he distributed among various post offices in the city.
+These letters were instructions to spies.
+
+Incidentally, Ernst was paid £1 (or $5) a month for his services.
+
+Through this discovery the British authorities were able to ascertain
+all the spies employed by the Foreign Office, work out the cipher used,
+and read all the instructions. When the time for action arrived all the
+British police had to do was to visit the addresses of these agents and
+put them under lock and key. One, and one only, escaped. The entire
+system of German espionage in England was in eclipse.
+
+Suppose a similar _coup_ had been achieved in France!
+
+Nothing but the most fortuitous circumstances prevented the German spy
+system in France from failing as completely as did their British system.
+Only a stroke of fortune which they had no right to expect saved them.
+The Second Bureau of the War Department, which is the nerve centre of
+the army and responsible for counter-espionage in France, followed the
+example of their Allies and drew up a list of undesirable aliens, which
+was presented to the civil police for action. The Minister of the
+Interior, who was head of the civil police, refused to have these
+potential and actual spies arrested.
+
+It has been asserted repeatedly that this Minister (M. Malvy) was one of
+Mata Hari’s victims. He has been charged with criminal co-operation in
+her defence and was actually exiled because of his neglect of the most
+elementary precautions at a moment of national crisis. Let us hasten to
+say that we do not attribute any treacherous intention to the Minister.
+He shared with another Minister (Messimy, at the War Department) the
+extraordinary distinction of possessing a name which began with M and
+ended with Y, and it has been said that letters bearing the signature of
+MY which were found in Mata Hari’s apartment formed part of the evidence
+wrongfully attributed to prove his guilt. This is wrong. At Mata Hari’s
+trial some letters were read which left no doubt about the writer; it
+was Messimy, and the mention of his unpopular name was received with
+unconcealed glee among the younger officers who had little cause to like
+him. It may further be added that these letters contained nothing which
+could have condemned anyone except, probably, in a breach-of-promise
+action. Having exculpated M. Malvy of any criminal relation with the
+spy, we cannot, however, entirely discharge him of all responsibility
+for aiding her.
+
+If Mata Hari never was the accepted mistress of M. Malvy, there was a
+very well-founded suspicion that Mlle. Nery Beryll was, and the two
+women were intimate friends. It was through this intimacy that Mata Hari
+was able to secure privileges which secured for her the reputation of
+the most dangerous spy discovered during the war. But she must not be
+charged with having prevented the arrest of the undesirables at the
+beginning of the war. Credit for that accomplishment belongs to
+Almeyreda. Had M. Malvy ever taken the trouble to arrange the names on
+this sinister list in alphabetical order, he would have found that of
+his friend Almeyreda at the head. Yet this man actually persuaded the
+Minister that it would be bad policy to arrest these foreigners because
+it would cause a panic in France. It was a piece of superb effrontery
+and saved the entire German spy system operating in France. It was a
+piece of good fortune which must have created exquisite delight in
+Berlin, but for the unhappy Second Bureau it was only a foretaste of the
+intense difficulties under which they had to work until the entire
+Ministry of obstruction was cleared out.
+
+The position of these spies appeared to be founded upon such an
+intricate web of intrigue, involving men of the highest position, that,
+after this good opening, to expose one or two agents would mean the
+almost inconceivable participation of public functionaries in an
+anti-national conspiracy. It is not suggested that all those who
+subsequently suffered prosecution—men like Caillaux, Humbert, and
+Malvy—were actually in the pay of the German authorities or were
+actually aware that they were tools of the Berliners. But if their acts
+were not criminal in the accepted sense of the word, their ready
+acceptance of friendship with less innocent people like Almeyreda and
+Bolo, their indifference to treacherous intrigue, and their rejection of
+advice from the secret police, rendered them not unworthy of the active
+hatred of those who placed power in their hands. When it is recalled
+that, forty years before, Germany had placed the Prussian Baroness von
+Kaula in a position where she gained the confidence of the War Minister
+in Paris, the least that might have been expected of contemporary French
+statesmen was to guard against a repetition of the betrayal.
+
+Even with their agents so well placed that an exposure would have
+resulted in a revelation of political shallowness and corruption which
+would have shaken the French nation to its very foundations, the German
+secret service had not entirely covered the field of their activities.
+There was an urgent need for current military information to supplement
+the work of the terrorists and defeatists, and Mata Hari was the spy
+best qualified to obtain it.
+
+It never was an easy matter for neutrals to pass from one belligerent
+country to another during the war. Harassed police agents at the
+frontiers and ports of entry suspected everyone, demanding absolute
+proof from all travellers that their journey was of a wholly innocent
+nature. To elude the vigilance of these officials the German secret
+service had organized a highly efficient forgery department whose duty
+it was to produce at short notice all the necessary proofs of identity
+required to enable a neutral to circulate freely among the nations at
+war. In Mata Hari’s case no forged papers were necessary. She was a
+neutral, a distinguished dancer of established reputation with many
+influential friends who were able to smooth over many difficulties which
+beset the less fortunate traveller. But even so a very good reason had
+to be furnished for her desire to visit Paris, so to the French
+representatives in Holland she offered the plausible excuse that she
+wished to dispose of her property at Neuilly. This satisfied them when
+the application was supported by the head of the Dutch Cabinet and by
+powerful French officials, and Mata Hari was granted the papers
+necessary for her journey to Paris.
+
+The head of the German secret service provided her with 30,000 marks (at
+that time $7,500) for her expenses. Unfortunately, this financial
+transaction was made known to the English Intelligence Department, who
+passed on their information to the Second Bureau in Paris as soon as it
+was known that the French capital was her destination. At a later date
+Mata Hari had an uneasy moment when she was taxed with receiving this
+payment and asked for an explanation. She treated her questioner with
+disdain and the question with a lack of gravity which only equalled her
+want of modesty.
+
+“It is true that I received 30,000 marks from my friend who is head of
+the espionage department but it was not the salary of a spy. It was the
+price of my favours, for I was his mistress.”
+
+“Yes, we know of your intimate relations with the officer,” was the
+unfeeling retort, “but he must have been unusually generous to treat you
+so liberally.”
+
+“Thirty thousand marks generous! That was my usual price. My lovers
+never offered me less.”
+
+Decidedly Mata Hari had her moments of pride, but there was a time when
+she had to admit that the same officer paid for the same services with
+only half the amount.
+
+As we have said, no sooner did Mata Hari arrive in London en route for
+Paris than the English warned their French allies of the spy’s journey.
+It might be asked why they did not arrest her, knowing that she was a
+highly dangerous spy going into a friendly country to practise her
+treacherous calling.
+
+The explanation is simple. A spy enjoys the customary privilege of being
+innocent until there is material proof of guilt. No one accused of
+spying can be punished by a court of law without the production of
+conclusive orthodox evidence, because, in the case of a foreigner, or
+more particularly of a neutral, the national representatives make
+energetic efforts to release them, so that in principle the freedom of
+movement of their nationals will not be restricted. Circumstantial
+evidence is worthless.
+
+Substantial evidence was made more than ever necessary during the war,
+when German spies adopted the ruse of pleading guilty to secondary
+offences, such as smuggling, in order to avoid the major charge of
+spying, which might involve a death sentence. In the case of Mata Hari
+there was no direct evidence. She was known as a police “stool pigeon,”
+not as an active agent either collecting or transmitting information,
+and for that reason the special branch of Scotland Yard was powerless to
+prevent her from proceeding on her journey. They could only hope that
+her liberty might induce her to make some false move which would betray
+either the mission she had been sent on or some of her fellow spies with
+whom she would come in contact. Their hopes were not realized, but for
+the moment she was courteously treated in order to prevent arousing any
+presentiment of the danger she was running, or any suggestion that the
+English authorities knew of her work.
+
+Immediately she was installed in Paris, Mata Hari began to extend her
+circle of friends.
+
+There was still the faithful band of old followers to whom she had
+awarded her favours in the past and could be of use to her yet on
+occasion. Among these were the permanent head of the Ministry of Foreign
+Affairs, who had been her first lover in Paris and who retained an
+ardent passion for her to the bitter end, and General Messimy, the
+amiable if not too brilliant old soldier who held the important post of
+War Minister. These men and the sycophants who invariably hover about
+the presence of persons of influence would serve to provide her with a
+rich field from which to extract information as well as personal gain.
+
+It was her liaison with the first mentioned of these officials that
+permitted Mata Hari to perform a feat which would enhance the joy and
+gratification of the most successful secret agent. Some of her reports
+to the espionage chiefs in Holland were written on the official
+notepaper of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, sure proof of her
+successful penetration into these exclusive official circles. But if
+these, and other, leaders of opinion were never judged to have been
+rather more than usually indiscreet, if no actual guilt was proved
+against them, surely Mata Hari’s close intimacy with these men enabled
+her to benefit from the confidence of their subordinates, who, human
+nature being what it is, must have occasionally been coaxed or persuaded
+to reveal confidential knowledge to a woman who could predispose their
+chiefs in their favour.
+
+When the London authorities obligingly “signalled” the approaching
+arrival of Mata Hari in Paris, she was taken under the closest
+surveillance of the Second Bureau; but the strictest scrutiny of her
+actions and correspondence failed to reveal any material evidence of her
+complicity in espionage. Certainly she was known to have friends among
+some of the women who also were known to act as carriers for their
+lovers employed in the German secret service in Spain and Switzerland,
+but it was found on most reliable authority that she was completely
+ignorant of this employment. It was only a similarity of social tastes
+which brought them together. Not only did Mata Hari resume her former
+standards of depraved morality which she called her pleasures, but she
+sank to lower depths of degradation than ever before.
+
+Paris was throughout the war the Mecca of many a sorry pilgrimage for
+those who had faced the inferno of the advanced posts with its horror of
+death and mutilation, its filth and abomination, its monastic
+deprivations from the soft and endearing charms of gentle companions. It
+is futile to blame these men, whose eyes still carried the reflection of
+death, for their excesses. To be deprived of their womenfolk was one of
+the severest strains to which they were exposed; the loss of their
+charming restraints caused many a decent and healthy-minded man to seek
+gratification for the feeling of unbounded relief which Paris leave
+afforded in the smiles and enchantments of that mocking, laughing
+cherubim of hell. Who shall blame them? Did not St. Anthony try to solve
+the problem in his own way? And no one credits him with achieving any
+great happiness through his solution.
+
+Mata Hari knew that in the dens of iniquity to which these foreign
+officers, and French officers, too, released from rigorous discipline
+and nervous strain, sought a temporary oblivion from their restraints,
+much valuable information could be obtained if one shared in the task of
+brightening the few days of leave and profited by the moments of
+intoxicated relaxation. The author of the standard work on the
+prostitution in Paris during the war mentions having encountered Mata
+Hari in several popular brothels frequented by soldiers on leave. In
+their efforts to purify her character some ardent admirers have
+protested against unguarded use of this statement because the medical
+man who makes it omits to mention whether she visited the establishments
+as a client or as an employee. Although we fail to appreciate the fine
+difference between the status of the two characters, let us say at once
+that we believe she went in the more dignified (if that is the word)
+character of client, frequenting the places for the express purpose of
+extracting from drunken soldiers information they would have sacrificed
+their tongues to have retained.
+
+However, it is fairly certain that her visits were not without personal
+recompense and that she carried her worship of the god Siva into these
+hells, because the official investigator received several jealous
+complaints from other _habitués_ of these houses that Mata Hari got more
+than her share of their trade. “The Hindu is a perfect devil,” they
+angrily declared. At this time she was making other, more severe calls
+upon the assistance of Siva, the god of evil.
+
+The information of Allied military affairs she gleaned did not all come
+from this tainted source. In point of fact, much of the material so
+gathered was inclined to be very deceiving unless substantiated, because
+the wild rumours which circulated where large groups of people were
+congregated only confused the issue, and in matters of military policy
+the officers who came down from the front line were the worst possible
+judges. But the circles round her Ministerial friends furnished the
+correctives. It can be acknowledged that whatever material Mata Hari
+collected, trustworthy or not, and dispatched to her chiefs in Holland,
+remained her own and their secret for many a month. The exasperating
+feature of her activities, from a counter-espionage point of view, was
+that they defied detection. The Second Bureau had cleverly introduced
+some of its ablest agents into the intimacy of her private life without
+being able to surprise her secret. They were convinced of her guilt, yet
+unable to expose it. And Heaven alone knows she was not idle.
+
+Having obtained admission to France under the pretext of selling her
+Neuilly property, she could not afford to neglect this duty without
+arousing suspicion of her real mission. An amusing story arises from
+this task of selling her possessions, which shows that she still enjoyed
+making people’s flesh creep with stories of her savage nature. Among her
+most cherished possessions in the villa was a valuable collection of
+Dresden china which had been accumulated through the efforts of various
+lovers to emulate each other in their generosity. As a collection it was
+of considerable interest, but as a readily realizable asset it was
+comparatively worthless, since no one was wishful to acquire such
+fragile property when Fokkers were destroying cathedrals of more
+substantial construction. Again her official friends came to her aid.
+There were the national collections with funds for the acquisition of
+such treasures.
+
+Accordingly, Mata Hari was given an appointment with the curator of one
+of these institutions, a scholarly, cultured gentleman whose thoughts
+were remote from deeds of destruction. She explained the urgent need for
+disposing of her possessions so that she might return to Holland, and
+regretfully told how she had been compelled to part with things which
+were a part of her life. She had even been compelled to sell her stable,
+and this is a very significant fact, since ownership of a private
+carriage in those days was as much the hallmark of success as possession
+of a Rolls-Royce or a Hispano is to the light lady of today.
+
+“However,” she added with a sigh of regret, “I could not think of my
+dear pony Vichna falling into strange hands. This morning I killed him
+myself, thrusting a golden stiletto into his heart.”
+
+Still, the times were trying for a lady with such expensive tastes. So
+many former friends had been compelled to leave Paris to serve with
+their regiments, others no longer gave the voluptuous entertainments
+which were out of place in a society which was stricken with grief over
+personal losses and national danger. The very rooms where she had
+previously lounged in indolent languor were filled with the groans of
+wounded men. The cost of living was rising, too, so there remained no
+alternative but a new and wealthy companion who would be responsible for
+maintaining her in the style she desired. There was always the old
+friend in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and, through him, a
+considerable number of minor diplomatists who might be depended on for
+discreet entertainment. But a wealthy protector had to be found
+somewhere.
+
+Major Massard tells of one candidate who had acquired great wealth in
+profits arising from trading in war materials. He aspired to a
+reputation as a _boulevardier_, but had not achieved his ambition,
+through lack of a mistress sufficiently notorious and beautiful to match
+his great possessions. This man cast admiring glances in Mata Hari’s
+direction because she had the reputation of being the most extravagant
+woman in Paris and therefore designed to do him credit as a man of
+position and riches. As her own glance was ever charged with warm
+promises, the affair progressed so favourably that the infatuated man
+gave a splendid dinner in one of the most delightful and correspondingly
+expensive restaurants in the Bois, which had all the air of a wedding
+feast. The festivity was marked by all the luxury and ostentatious
+display of a wealthy man proudly displaying his conquest before his and
+her friends, and all went happily until the _maître d’hôtel_ offered a
+box of expensive cigars to the host. With a gesture of disdain he waved
+them aside as worthy of the more delicate palates of his refined guests.
+
+“I am provided with some excellent cigars,” he said, drawing a case of
+five-cent Bocks from his pocket, “and they do not cost so much.”
+
+Mata Hari’s disapproval was unconcealed. She was heard to remark to her
+other neighbour at the table:
+
+“That crack smells of herring. The stingy old devil! I could never enter
+into relations with a creature like that.”
+
+The man was the gainer, however, for the abrupt rupture of their
+friendship spared him from suspicion of complicity in her intrigues
+which fell upon all her acquaintances of this time. The incident is
+characteristic of the luxury-saturated existence she loved and further
+supports her frequent assertions that she hated mean people and stingy
+actions. This was her excuse for the profligacy she habitually practised
+and for the showers of gold (provided by her generous male companions)
+which flowed from her. A freedom of giving, however ill-calculated it
+might be, passed with her for generosity and earned for her the
+affection of domestics, who benefited from her liberal bounty, and
+fulsome flattery from among her numerous worshippers.
+
+At last the weary business of selling her property was satisfactorily
+completed and there was no further reason why she should not return to
+Holland, but she found a reason to prolong her stay that increased the
+alarm of the Second Bureau, which would gladly have seen her depart.
+Mata Hari announced that she had enrolled in the Red Cross and was
+instructed to report for duty at the hospital in Vittel, a town in the
+zone of the Chemin des Dames. There were excellent reasons why a
+suspected person should not be permitted to go there and the Second
+Bureau were resolved to do their utmost to prevent the journey. A glance
+at the military situation will explain this.
+
+After the offensive in Artois in May and June of 1915 in which the
+advance had been faster than was planned, it was decided to profit by
+the lessons learned and to plan an extensive allied offensive in
+Champagne with a simultaneous attack in Artois. In order that the
+preparation for this great offensive might be masked French activity was
+transferred during the summer to the Vosges and the Argonne with the
+hope that the enemy might not learn where the actual attack was to be
+delivered.
+
+It was considered that the French defensive system had been so perfected
+that the garrisons of quieter sectors could be reduced to a minimum,
+with a corresponding increase in the available reserves. New divisions
+had been formed and the troops intended for the attack were given
+methodical training. The situation looked favourable for the attainment
+of great objectives, which were to relieve the pressure on the eastern
+front and to effect a complete rupture of the German line so as to
+outflank it on the left, to the north of Rheims. The more optimistic
+officers of Joffre’s staff believed that the powerful reinforcements and
+the increase in heavy artillery would furnish the French with the means
+of disengaging the entire western front, an object that was not
+unattainable at that stage of the war. With such optimism prevailing at
+army headquarters it was not surprising that the darkening of the
+national spirit should be lightened by a gleam of hope which peered
+wanly through the surrounding gloom. The attack was to be launched
+toward the end of September.
+
+One of the three zones for the attack was in front of Vittel, so that
+all the bustling activity of preparation must go surging eastward
+through the small town which was the location of several stationary
+units such as hospitals and air squadrons. The little town would be
+bursting with the portents of an offensive. There is no element in
+military strategy so conducive to success as surprise. The Lord may be
+on the side of the big battalions, but if the weaker opponent is warned
+of his enemy’s intentions the advantages of numbers are offset by the
+state of preparedness he will encounter.
+
+Before air-photography of positions had become a science with recognized
+symbols for the concentration of troops and material, a military
+commander had to depend upon one small gift—the secret of entry into
+another man’s mind to discover what was passing there. The greatest
+general the world has ever known owed his success to this power of
+guessing correctly what the enemy was going to do. Many can guess, but
+few guess right, and in a military sense it has been observed that the
+best guessers, including Napoleon, were those who had the best
+Intelligence service to furnish them with the inspiration for their
+guess. In the case of Mata Hari’s visit to Vittel, the men of the Second
+Bureau were convinced that she was seeking information concerning the
+approaching offensive, because, since Joffre had contrived to keep much
+of his preparation from the Parisian gossip, there was no alternative
+but to investigate it on the spot. Yet the utmost vigilance failed to
+reveal any act which could support their conviction. Further, general
+opinion was all against them.
+
+Mata Hari made no secret of her intention to visit Vittel. She had met
+an old acquaintance in Paris, a Russian nobleman who is today a
+well-known resident in the city, and he had informed her that a mutual
+friend had received wounds which had resulted in the loss of his sight.
+This unfortunate victim of war was a Captain Marov, an officer of the
+Russian contingent serving on the western front; he was at the time a
+patient in hospital at Vittel. Without any hesitation Mata Hari
+announced her intention of going to the stricken man’s side to console
+and comfort him with her ministrations.
+
+Had she quietly made use of the influence of her Ministerial friends to
+slip unostentatiously away from Paris, it is possible that she could
+have eluded the vigilance of the Second Bureau for some time, but,
+woman-like, she had to make a ceremony of her renunciation of the
+flesh-pots of the modern Babylon and celebrate it in a series of merry
+farewell parties. In spite of all their researches the counter-espionage
+agents were compelled to admit that her story of acquaintance with
+Captain Marov was correct and that it had been of such an intimate
+character that her desire to devote herself to the consolation of the
+unfortunate officer was plausible. The only flaw in the story was her
+statement that she was proceeding as an official nurse, for enquiry
+revealed that the Red Cross had not even been approached with the offer
+of her services.
+
+Nevertheless, the hazard of having an agent of the enemy in the forward
+area during preparations for an offensive was prodigious, and the Second
+Bureau felt justified in trying to prevent the journey.
+
+Authorization for a visit to the district of Vittel could only be
+obtained from the offices of the Interior and Foreign Affairs. But how
+could the counter-espionage agents tell the two men who were prepared to
+facilitate Mata Hari’s journey that their friend was a dangerous spy,
+when there was no shred of evidence to support the contention? M. Malvy
+and the head of the Foreign Office might be willing to concede that she
+was quite capable of committing any folly in broad daylight, but they
+would reject the suggestion that she was capable of even a petty
+villainy in the shadow. But, argued the Second Bureau officials, our own
+nationals who reside in the army zone are denied the privilege of
+leaving their homes without written consent from the local police, who
+are qualified from knowledge of their affairs to judge whether the
+journey is justifiable. No visitor is admitted to these closed areas
+without an official pass, which is issued only after the most careful
+investigation. Why, then, award to neutrals, even friendly neutrals, a
+privilege which is denied citizens whose patriotism is above all
+suspicion? In substance Mata Hari’s Ministerial friends replied:
+
+“The restriction of personal liberty within the army zone is a measure
+which we can enforce upon our own nationals because of their common
+interest in the safety of their country, but, from the point of view of
+general policy, we do not feel justified in recommending a similar
+course against neutrals whose friendship we desire to promote and thus
+establish good relations abroad. Further, a general rule closing the
+forward areas to neutrals would inflict great hardships in individual
+cases, and that we desire to avoid. Such a ruling, for example, would
+prevent the charming and spiritual Mata Hari, the prominent young Dutch
+_artiste_, from undertaking the highly meritorious mission she proposes
+to perform for the benefit of one of our wounded heroes.”
+
+Thus, if Mata Hari’s Ministerial friends committed no overt act of
+treachery, it is obvious that their generosity could be applied to
+dangerous abuse by an unscrupulous woman.
+
+Confronted by such a policy, there appeared little that the officers of
+the Second Bureau could do but sit on the quays and spit
+misanthropically into the Seine while waiting for the worst to happen.
+They could not deny that the supposed spy was making considerable
+self-sacrifice (a virtue of which she had never been accused) in
+forfeiting her elegant surroundings in order to live under _macabre_
+conditions that were a fit scene for a Dantean inferno. Besides, there
+was her love, and while philosophy can explain many things, there are
+some beyond her pitch, one of which is a woman’s love and the way of it.
+
+Mata Hari had innumerable casual love-affairs, but did she ever achieve
+the ideal bond, that human weakness that ennobles its victims? Her
+friends contend that she did and point triumphantly to this incident at
+Vittel as convincing proof. Mata Hari later told her judges:
+
+“While staying at Vittel I devoted myself to a poor Russian officer who
+had lost his sight. It was my intention to abandon my life of debauchery
+and to consecrate myself to the care of this unhappy man whom I loved
+sincerely. He was the only man whom I ever sincerely loved.”
+
+Her friends point to the sacrifice she was making, a sacrifice which
+inspired an extraordinary sympathy among those who had imagined that her
+selfish soul was swallowed up in frivolity and debauchery. Her life had
+given no suggestion that she was capable of such devotion. Hers was not
+the beauty that bloomed for one man, but for the multitude; she fed not
+on the love of an individual, but on the adulation of many until Marov
+reappeared in her life. The Second Bureau officers were the only people
+who placed an uncharitable interpretation upon her action. They said
+that the woman who wishes to be all things to all men cannot be
+everything to one.
+
+As for Captain Marov’s views on the matter, we have been told by those
+who pretend to know his thoughts that he is a brother in a Spanish
+monastery where he remembers in his daily office to pray for the soul of
+Mata Hari and gives thanks for the sacrificial love of the wronged woman
+who gave up her gay and voluptuous life in Paris to brighten his dark
+days. To Marov she was a fellow creature touched with divinity through
+the possession of angelic qualities. A man who has suffered as he has
+done is entitled to cherish all his visions of former happiness; only
+the churlish would dispute his right to that solace for the
+enlightenment of a life that must be spent in physical darkness. There
+has been no suggestion that this innocent victim of the war was aware of
+his companion’s employment.
+
+There is no more gratifying sight to the moralist than a penitent
+renouncing wrong. Let us make the best of it. Mata Hari had been the
+recipient of every luxury her wealthy lovers could devise in emulation
+as the price of her favours. Marov was not a wealthy man and, therefore,
+could offer no inducement which appealed to her luxurious senses; he
+could not even maintain his lover in average comfort had it been
+available in Vittel. His impoverishment is advanced in palliation of
+Mata Hari’s subsequent conduct when she found it necessary to provide
+herself with funds in order to maintain herself and furnish delicacies
+to the patient who looked to her for comfort.
+
+Her method was characteristic. Marov’s situation was such that she could
+not spend her entire day at his side, and the resources of bomb-riven
+Vittel were poor in the extreme for a woman of her tastes. No one who
+has not endured it can picture the drab misery, the pitiless discomfort,
+the utter stagnation of life in those overcrowded villages just behind
+the lines. Social intercourse, already hampered by regulations, was
+swamped beneath military requirements. For entertainment during her
+leisure, then, Mata Hari turned to the officers who were stationed in
+the neighbourhood and to those, still more numerous, who were passing
+through the town. The military activity was such that the French army
+appeared to have begun an involved game of general post, so that there
+were new faces in the town each day. For all and sundry, Mata Hari had a
+ready welcome that was characterized by an entire absence of modest
+reticences; she accepted as lovers any officers whom her fickle fancy
+chanced to alight on. In extenuation of this prostitution it is urged
+that she was forced to sell her body in order to procure funds to
+supplement Captain Marov’s meagre hospital fare.
+
+The stage was admirably set for an orgy of riotous licentiousness.
+Incoming troops, aware of the significance of their movement, recognized
+that tomorrow would find them in the line, exposed to the abomination of
+trench life in winter, while here a charming hostess was spreading out
+for their delight such pleasures as might be their last earthly revel.
+The lust of these men who were turning their backs on all that was
+natural, refreshing, and pleasant in their lives to face unmitigated
+misery, was only equalled by the trench-weary veterans whom they
+relieved. These men grasped greedily at the first opportunity to savour
+joys after weeks of deprivation in the front lines.
+
+Most favoured of all her companions were the airmen from neighbouring
+squadrons, those young heroes who sported with death in many forms and
+who enjoyed a species of dark exaltation in the mortuary horror of their
+tasks; these were singled out for special favour, and as a class airmen
+have never been distinguished for restraint. Many of the young pilots
+were permitted to share her intimacy and cheer her loneliness with their
+stories, for which she rewarded them with wine-scented kisses and the
+bliss of intoxication.
+
+The ever-watchful agents of the counter-espionage service missed none of
+this. Her voluminous correspondence was carefully examined without
+revealing anything but the most innocent communications between friends
+who tried to beguile her self-imposed exile. The monotonous regularity
+of her life was only interrupted by an occasional visit to Paris in the
+interest of her patient. So unprofitable were the watches of these
+patient officers that they were forced to wonder whether they were not
+labouring under a misapprehension in endeavouring to convict this woman
+of intelligence with the enemy. Spying in the forward area was an
+entirely different matter to doing the same kind of work under
+concealment of life in a crowded city where the indifferent civilians
+had not the same motives of self-preservation in watching for and
+suspecting any possible betrayers.
+
+So passed the months of July and August to an increasing crescendo of
+bustle and excitement as the troops prepared for the approach of zero
+day for the great offensive. All might go well if only the increased
+activity in the Vosges and the Argonne had succeeded in concealing from
+the enemy the time and the locale of the real assault. It was the duty
+of the counter-espionage agents to ensure that no tidings of the
+forthcoming attack were communicated to the expectant enemy and they
+relaxed nothing of their effort. Finally all was ready.
+
+Shortly after mid-day on September 25th the infantry attack in Artois
+was launched. The surprise was as complete as could be expected after
+such elaborate preparation. The German barrage was laid down too late
+and the subsequent confusion prevented the artillery from supporting the
+infantry. The German reserves for the defence of Vimy Ridge were not
+available. Nothing but the mud held back the impetuous French. For three
+days the surprised German command experienced acute anxiety.
+
+Further south the attack experienced greater difficulty. The resistance
+was greater than had been anticipated because, when the attack was
+planned the defensive force consisted of 90 battalions; when it was
+launched this force has been increased to 192 battalions. But the heavy
+artillery preparation ensured a certain amount of success in several
+localities. Ground was gained in the advanced positions but the results
+were far from the high hopes raised by the optimistic staff who had
+forged this powerful weapon which was to open the way to the enemy’s
+rear positions.
+
+In several places the German front line still held its ground in spite
+of the overwhelming force directed against it and a week later the
+entire second position remained intact. When a general order closed the
+operations the French had lost 80,000 killed and 100,000 wounded.
+
+Heavy as were these losses and inconsiderable the gain nothing but the
+paralysis of the German high command was responsible for omitting to
+furnish the means of making the former heavier and the latter less. As
+early as August 15th the place and time of attack was known to the lower
+commands, as was shown by an order of General von Ditfurth. The means
+taken to encounter it have been described by one German authority,
+General Feyler, as a “hotch potch” in which units were split up and sent
+to different localities, thus losing their _esprit de corps_.
+
+The main objects were far from being accomplished. The eastern front had
+not been relieved of pressure and Vouziers, the local objective, was
+still far distant. To admit that the army had been betrayed was too
+damaging a confession to make after raising such high hopes. But that it
+had been betrayed was now a known fact. Yet the betrayer was inviolate.
+
+
+
+
+                             _Chapter Nine_
+
+
+We have already said that a spy’s main difficulty is not in obtaining
+information, but in transmitting it safely to the desired point. There
+is nothing which so completely tries the resourcefulness of the secret
+agent as the methods he employs in the conveyance of material to his
+superiors, and without some knowledge of the extraordinary artifices
+employed by the spies one cannot appreciate the bewildering difficulties
+that confronted the Second Bureau in their endeavours to intercept
+incriminating correspondence.
+
+If Mata Hari was engaged in spying, she had the choice of many cunning
+subterfuges, but a woman living in the full blaze of publicity that
+attends a vaudeville _artiste_ who courts notoriety, knowing she was
+under suspicion of the English, but ignorant of the extent of their
+knowledge, could not hope to keep secret a treasonable correspondence
+without precautions of an extraordinary nature. The ordinary channels of
+communication adopted by secret agents were too dangerous to be employed
+in her case, because the German authorities knew from their own
+experience that the best of codes can be deciphered by specialists,
+while chains of agents through whom the information is passed are
+terribly dangerous, since each link in the chain progressively increases
+the danger of the betrayal, as was proved in the German _coup_ preceding
+the Verdun offensive to be mentioned later. Therefore some more than
+usually safe method had to be devised for communication with Amsterdam
+and Antwerp.
+
+It was obviously impossible to rely upon the time-honoured methods which
+were familiar to all secret services alike. Simple invisible inks made
+from onion or lemon juices were often employed to introduce information
+into an innocent-looking missive, a simple device which would have
+spared Nathan Hale’s life had he known of it. One only had to heat the
+paper to make the writing visible. This old method was very early
+abandoned in favour of more scientific devices that defied the
+recognized methods of detection. Since it was necessary to avoid
+creating any suspicion of the materials used, it became necessary to
+import them from the agent’s headquarters and it was this form of
+smuggling which most often revealed a new chemical agent employed for
+the purpose. Soaps and toilet waters containing ferrate of potassium and
+lead acetate for the manufacture of invisible inks became part of a
+spy’s equipment, while handy methods, such as the dipping of a pocket
+handkerchief saturated with this chemical in a glass of water provided
+the agent with a means of producing the ink at will.
+
+The writer well recalls the perplexity of a group of counter-espionage
+agents over a trunk containing nothing but soiled underclothes which had
+been sent from Amsterdam to a man who had not been in that city for many
+months. It was the mere fact that all the clothes were soiled that
+caused the examiners to subject them to a careful scrutiny. Only when a
+chemical test was applied to every article was it found that one pair of
+socks was heavily saturated with the material for making enough
+invisible ink to have supplied a battalion of spies. The remainder of
+the clothes were unexceptional.
+
+The most amazing craftsman in the use of invisible inks was an Argentine
+called Dei Pasi, who reported to Gruber in Geneva. Dei Pasi was the
+typical swarthy spy of the stage romances, with a natural catlike tread
+and that quick sidelong glance of a man who is instinctively on his
+guard against the weight of a hand clapped suddenly on his shoulder. His
+equipment of invisible inks was amazing in its variety and completeness,
+and yet he was detected only when he sent information concerning the
+cruiser _Kleber_ through the ordinary mail to Switzerland, written in
+ordinary ink, and in plain ordinary writing instead of cipher. It is
+believed that it was this romantic son of the warm south who tried,
+unsuccessfully, to send a message through a channel which almost
+deserved a better fate for its originality. He sent the designs of an
+artillery improvement drawn in the delicate folds of a ballet-dancer’s
+skirt, but, alas! misfortune too often wears a skirt; it was discovered.
+
+Another favourite means of communicating with superiors in a distant
+country was by means of small advertisements in the newspapers, but this
+practice became too dangerous in France, where all such notices had to
+be submitted to the police before publication, while in England the
+newspaper staffs developed an extraordinary scent for the suspicious
+advertisement and voluntarily co-operated with the police in preventing
+their publication. One spy made use of the “For Sale” column to insert
+cleverly concealed information relating to the movements of British
+naval vessels. But if this method had the advantage that when a director
+of espionage wished to secure secret information all he had to do was to
+read the enemy newspapers, it had the drawback that intentionally
+inaccurate information sometimes continued to appear in the usual way
+long after a spy had withdrawn from the world at large to become the
+inmate of a prison. The Scotland Yard officials have only recently
+discarded a motor-car which was purchased from funds received for
+information supplied in this way. The police had seized the spy Müller
+and were fortunate enough to have acquired his code book and
+instructions at the same time. Armed with these documents, the English
+Intelligence Department continued to furnish the German officials
+carefully “doctored” information, which so pleased the latter that they
+increased their spy’s salary. It should be explained on behalf of the
+London police that they showed their gratitude for this unexpected
+windfall by purchasing a car and calling it “Müller,” after its
+unintentional donor.
+
+At the risk of further digression we must here relate an instance of
+supplying false information to the enemy which is too good to omit. In
+England, as in Germany, the Intelligence services of the army and the
+navy are separate departments, only, whereas in Germany the two services
+fought each other with the dogged perseverance of the proverbial
+Kilkenny cats, their opposite numbers in London contrived to work with
+commendable co-operation except in this one case. Sir Reginald Hall, the
+exceedingly astute head of the Admiralty Intelligence service, once ran
+across an enemy agent who seemed a likely fellow to snatch greedily at
+any morsel of confidential information. At this time Sir Reginald wanted
+very badly to have the enemy misconstrue the meaning of a naval
+concentration which was in contemplation, so he allowed the watchful spy
+to receive, in strict confidence, the knowledge that the ships were
+collecting in order to cover a landing of troops somewhere between the
+Ems and the Weser.
+
+This threatened violation of their territory came to the ears of the
+Dutch statesmen, who had to be gently pacified. It also arrived at the
+Imperial headquarters, where it created genuine alarm. Several reserve
+divisions were immediately detached from their formations and were moved
+to meet the menace. Sure enough, this movement of troops was observed
+and reported upon by the zealous British agents, only in this case the
+reports went to the War Office and not to the Admiralty.
+
+British military strategists submitted the problem to careful
+examination and decided that it indicated an intention on the part of
+the Germans to undertake an invasion of the south coast. They speedily
+drew up a plan of defence and invited the co-operation of the Admiralty
+in opposing this threat to the safety of the realm. Enquiries on the
+matter were naturally addressed to Hall by his superiors and he had to
+admit that his little plot to deceive the enemy had also succeeded in
+confusing his friends at the War Office.
+
+Enough has been written to give some idea of the variety of methods at
+Mata Hari’s disposal if she was contemplating sending information to
+Amsterdam and to show the manner in which the counter-espionage services
+were meeting the ever-changing subtlety of the spies. The Second Bureau
+explored the entire complicated field in order to grasp some
+incriminating fact. Her influential friends made it positively necessary
+to have some concrete evidence of her guilt before they could take any
+steps to even demand the withdrawal of her permission to remain in
+France, apart from obtaining a conviction before a court-martial, where
+the evidence submitted would have to be conclusive. If any of her
+actions were of a suspicious character they could always be explained by
+the nature of her profession as a light-of-love. But, even admitting
+that she was spying, how was it possible to continue to send messages to
+her chiefs when the French agents watched every movement with meticulous
+care and found nothing damaging? It is notorious that reports were
+sometimes passed by word of mouth, but the careful scrutiny of all her
+acquaintances failed to reveal anyone who could be supposed to be
+receiving and transmitting her messages. It is known that a man called
+Wecsler was the principal collector of spy’s reports in Paris, but Mata
+Hari was never known to approach him. In fact, there is good reason to
+suppose that they did not know of each other’s existence.
+
+In order to appreciate the Second Bureau’s alarm that men of responsible
+posts should continue to associate with a woman of Mata Hari’s
+reputation and to follow the logical course of the investigation against
+her, it is necessary to introduce two more spies, not an unpleasant pair
+of underworld characters, but two certified scions of noble families.
+These were Ricardo and Dorlac, father-in-law and son-in-law, who were
+found to be related to eminent Spanish families; indeed, the older man
+claimed, we cannot say with what truth, to be closely related to the
+king of Spain. This precious pair of rascals were enrolled in the German
+secret service operating from Barcelona.
+
+In Paris they occupied a handsome suite in one of those imposing hotels
+on the Boulevard Haussmann and frequented the select diplomatic circles,
+where they were generally recognized as men of standing because of their
+family associations and because they were travelling on diplomatic
+passports, acquisitions which afford the bearers many privileges and a
+freedom from the irritating annoyances which a malevolent bureaucracy
+invents to distract ordinary travellers. One of the privileges which a
+diplomatic passport affords its bearer is immunity from, or at least a
+greatly relaxed severity of, customs inspection.
+
+The elder of the two Spaniards stayed in Paris, collecting materials
+which would inform his employers on the morale of the people, the
+movement of troops behind the line, and a variety of matters, while the
+son-in-law bore the dispatches to Geneva and Barcelona. The pair might
+have gone on with their work indefinitely had not Dorlac, in returning
+one time to France, somewhat ostentatiously offered his baggage for
+inspection by the customs officials. There ensued a slight discussion
+over the ownership of a box of cigars which Dorlac confidently assured
+the inspectors did not belong to him. This was not only cowardice, but
+colossal folly. The box had a false bottom in which was concealed a
+cipher message of instructions, and rather than run the risk of being
+found with it in his possession Dorlac allowed it to fall undisputed
+into the hands of the French.
+
+When he arrived in Paris Dorlac roundly abused his father-in-law for
+exposing him to danger of arrest with such a childish contraption as a
+cigar-box with a double bottom for the conveyance of secret documents;
+it was bound to arouse suspicion, he contended. The angry Dorlac further
+complained that as he ran the graver risks of the two he was entitled to
+the larger share of the recompense. As this money matter was the main
+cause of the argument, it was, naturally, conducted in loud tones, and
+it was not altogether by chance that a waiter overheard the angry
+discussion through the thickness of the door, nor was it chance which
+made him a Spanish-speaking waiter. Ricardo pacified his son-in-law with
+a promise that he would receive adequate recompense when the next
+payment was received, and went so far as to recommend the handle of a
+shaving brush as a good hiding-place for their reports if he was going
+to submit to customs inspections. This pair of spies can be dismissed
+with the comment that they had a quick trial and were executed in
+February of 1917.
+
+The significance of Ricardo and Dorlac in Mata Hari’s case lay in their
+diplomatic credentials. It gave the first indication that diplomatic
+privileges might be abused, and it became necessary to “place” men in
+certain Embassies that were thought to be careless in the manner in
+which they extended their privileges. As all ordinary mail for foreign
+countries was delayed for four days and was very closely inspected to
+see that it carried nothing injurious, ambassadors were not infrequently
+requested to secure quick delivery or special immunity for important
+private letters that had no right to the privilege of exemption. A man
+might wish to expedite an important business letter, or a mother might
+wish to convey sage counsel to a distant daughter, and occasionally an
+ambassador would condescend, provided the business man was of sufficient
+substance or the lady gracious and beautiful enough, to extend his
+diplomatic protection to the conveyance of his or her mail.
+
+One of the French agents placed in an Embassy was so amazingly
+successful in his penetration to a position of trust that he got access
+to the diplomatic mail-pouch. It naturally took some considerable time
+to reach such a confidential position, but the results obtained proved
+conclusively that it would have been advantageous to have made the
+attempt long ago. Nevertheless, as a piece of counter-espionage work,
+this was an achievement of first magnitude, for, while there have been
+numerous instances of a spy gaining access to a single diplomatic
+mail-pouch, this ability to keep an Embassy mail under constant
+supervision is probably unique in the annals of espionage. It had an
+astounding outcome.
+
+A few days before the offensive was launched against the Chemin des
+Dames, Mata Hari quitted Vittel and abandoned the rôle of a penitent to
+resume her unregenerate life in the capital. One of the first visits she
+paid after her return to Paris was to the Embassy of the Netherlands,
+where the French agent was submitting the mail to expert supervision.
+After a brief interview in an inner sanctum a high official graciously
+condescended to forward a letter to Mata Hari’s daughter, Jeanne Louise,
+in Holland; it had been done before and it was done again. Some of these
+Ministers of foreign powers were willing enough to violate their
+diplomatic privileges in order to gain the approval of a woman for whose
+favours they had to compete so keenly. Probably the courteous ambassador
+imagined that he was morally bound to aid in the transmission to her
+innocent daughter of wise counsel from a woman who knew the world so
+well. At least a charitable construction may be placed on the action,
+for the ambassador was no enemy of France.
+
+But the enterprising agent knew Mata Hari’s reputation at the Second
+Bureau and he decided to open this letter, have the contents copied, and
+let the cipher experts work upon its problems. The letter showed how
+thoroughly Mata Hari had played the part of Delilah in the garments of
+Magdalene. It carried information of primary importance on a matter of
+espionage arrangements by which the French were trying to repair the
+damage caused by a formidable coup delivered by their enemies.
+
+Toward the end of 1915 a wretched traitor had denounced Miss Edith
+Cavell and some thirty others for conspiring to convey lost Allied
+soldiers safely over the Dutch border. Among the group arrested were
+some women agents of the French spy service who had engaged in this
+other work as they did in anything designed to outwit the German
+authority. One of the defects in the hastily constructed espionage
+service in occupied territory was its organization into such a closely
+welded body where the members were known to one another. It was a fatal
+defect, although possibly not without its advantages by reason of the
+opportunities it afforded of mutual aid in the occupied territory. One
+of the women charged with aiding the concealment of Allied soldiers
+(they were not tried for spying), through either indiscretion or fear,
+for the German methods were not distinguished for gentleness,
+inadvertently betrayed the employment of a number of French agents. At
+the time the Verdun offensive was in contemplation, and to arrest these
+betrayed spies at once would doubtless have removed one source of
+danger, but it would give the French time to learn that their service
+was paralyzed and set about its repair soon enough to gather information
+which might destroy the surprise effect of the forthcoming attack.
+Consequently, the German service held its hand until the particulars of
+the necessary preparations had to be furnished to the lesser formations,
+at which time the risk of leakage really began. Then they arrested
+sixty-six French agents.
+
+It will be recalled that Miss Cavell and her colleagues were executed
+with a great deal of secrecy. The American and Spanish ambassadors, who
+were greatly interested in an effort to prevent the commission of the
+horror, only learned that the death penalty was to be carried out on the
+eve of its execution, too late to take effective steps at prevention.
+The reason for this unseemly haste lies in the panic which seized the
+Germans when they realized that the French service in their territory
+was so extensive, and the frenzy of fear that urged them to destroy
+innocent people in the erroneous belief that they were leaders of
+espionage who might, if allowed to live, convey through those authorized
+to visit them in gaol a warning that their work was discovered. It
+proves their lack of actual knowledge of the situation.
+
+The French espionage department was, therefore, deprived of the major
+part of their service in occupied territory and, while laboriously
+reconstructing the complex organization, had to depend almost
+exclusively upon information furnished by the British agents, whose
+service was unimpaired. Before long it became obvious to the German
+service that their army zone was being invaded by French agents, but how
+they arrived and where they came from remained a complete mystery until
+the day came when one of those strokes of fortune which pass for
+miracles of police wisdom furnished the solution.
+
+The military governor of Brussels, von Bissing, had fallen victim to a
+pair of bright eyes that were physically beautiful but morally terrible.
+Their owner, best known in Brussels as Angèle, was generally supposed to
+have set too rapid a pace for her elderly admirer to maintain, so that
+he died of an overdose of ambition to be youthful and to indulge in the
+follies of youth. His death made the girl’s situation somewhat
+precarious, for she had lived under von Bissing’s protection in more
+ways than one. Finding that her growing popularity thrust her into a
+good deal of notoriety, which angered the patriotic civilians who
+declined to lighten the life of the invaders, she decided to confide her
+past to her new friends, the Germans, as a means of securing her future
+safety from malicious gossip or actual denunciation. The girl told how
+she had originally fled from Brussels at the approach of the German
+invasion, but had been induced to return to it in order to act as an
+English spy. The perplexed German officers who heard this confession
+wanted to know how she had penetrated their lines. She explained that
+she had been dropped from an airplane. This revelation released a flood
+of light upon the obscure problem which was puzzling the Intelligence
+department as to how the Allies were introducing spies behind their
+lines.
+
+It will be readily understood that if the French or British could find
+anyone courageous enough to make the hazardous leap from an airplane
+into the abyss of night, it was comparatively easy for that person to
+find many willing protectors among the loyal civilian population of the
+occupied territory who could furnish concealment and assistance. It was
+surprising how many gallant French and Belgian men (and women, too,)
+were willing to make this perilous drop into the bowl of night and
+through an “Archie” barrage in order to serve their country. And let it
+be said to their eternal honour that none could have been tempted by the
+pecuniary reward, for the mere pittance they received for the task was a
+trifle compared to the financial magnates’ salary paid the men who make
+spectacular parachute jumps for the benefit of the curious at the
+present day.
+
+The practice of landing spies from airplanes is, I believe, an American
+invention, having been introduced by Lieutenant Bert Hall, an American
+aviator employed by the Turks in the first Balkan War. At the time of
+the formation of the Lafayette Escadrille, of which he was one of the
+original members, this remarkable soldier of fortune (he is now said to
+be a general in the Chinese army) was already experienced in the
+dangerous science. Dark nights, the darker the better, were the chosen
+times for these daring exploits. The locale selected for a landing-place
+was some isolated spot where a resident spy was already stationed. If
+the coast was clear the resident agent showed a light up his chimney and
+the pilot would then land his passenger. After the lapse of an agreed
+time, say two weeks, the pilot would return to the neighbourhood and, if
+the arranged-for light was showing, would make a descent, pick up his
+spy, and carry him back.
+
+This method had the great advantage that the spy’s absence was of such
+short duration that there was no necessity for the always dangerous
+written communications by which a spy is so frequently exposed. In this
+case he had simply to memorize his information so that in case of
+seizure there were no incriminating documents to conceal.
+
+But when the Germans found that the occupied territory was being sown
+with enemy agents, they were not long in inventing a means of locating
+their landing-places. They placed sound-ranging sets tuned to pick up
+the vibration of motors near likely spots and, after a landing had been
+effected, there was a comparison of results which revealed the exact
+spot where the descent had taken place and a careful watch was then kept
+for the pilot’s return. This compelled the adoption of parachutes for
+landings, which were thereafter accomplished without sound.
+
+The task required a steady nerve at that stage of airplane
+experimentation and when parachutes were usually associated with the
+genial lunatic who leaped from a stationary balloon to thrill the
+loutish spectators at a country fair. Yet there were one or two hardy
+souls who not only made the perilous leap, but who made their way back
+to repeat the performance. There were not a few whose experience could
+not be passed on for the benefit of their followers, for they were
+engulfed in that great silence which enclosed the fate of the “missing.”
+
+To find these courageous guests from the midnight air, once they had
+landed, was a task beyond the ability of the distracted German
+Intelligence service. Their only hope was to learn where the pilots
+dropped their passengers for the aerie descent, and to concentrate
+vigilance upon that locality. But, if they ever took any living survivor
+of these exploits, none was persuaded to impart this much-needed
+information to his captors, who, therefore, had to devise some other
+expedient to obtain the knowledge. The evil grew to such dimensions
+that, finally, the phenomenal success of Mata Hari in Paris induced her
+superiors to allot to her the delicate task of ascertaining from the
+pilots themselves what routes they took and at what spots they took
+leave of, and picked up, their passengers. It was a job after her own
+heart.
+
+This explains her fondness, apart from her already expressed preference
+for men of the officer class, for the airmen who came to Paris on leave
+and for the same class of men whom she lured into intoxication and
+intimacy during her alleged mission of mercy in Vittel. From their
+unguarded lips she learned the babbled truth which cost many of the
+tellers their lives before the routes could be changed for this risky
+work.
+
+Before the astonished Second Bureau had recovered from the shock of
+their discovery that Mata Hari had adopted this unique channel of
+communication for her treacherous correspondence and had resolved upon a
+course of action, the offensive had been launched against the Chemin des
+Dames, only to be received with a devastating fire that showed only too
+well that the intention had been conveyed to the enemy, who was
+expecting it, but as yet there was nothing to suggest that they could do
+more than accuse Mata Hari in their minds.
+
+Then like a bolt from the blue came the terrible truth. Within a few
+days of the unveiling of her betrayal of the pilots and agents a letter
+was received at the Embassy for Mata Hari.
+
+This was not a reply from her innocent young daughter, but a request to
+pursue a matter previously mentioned and an expression of thanks for the
+information about the attack on the Chemin des Dames, for which she
+would receive payment as soon as its reliability had been proved.
+
+“While at Vittel ... I intended to abandon my life of debauchery and to
+consecrate myself to the devoted care of this man ... the only man I
+ever really loved.”
+
+All the melting softness of her nature must have run into Mata Hari’s
+tender glance as she spoke those words, for the rest of her being was as
+hard as flint, particularly her heart.
+
+How many of the 80,000 dead, 100,000 wounded, and 20,000 missing had
+tasted the bitter sweet of her Delilah kisses will never be known, but
+that they were many will be recalled by the survivors who have not yet
+forgotten how generously she dispensed hospitality and how liberally she
+loved.
+
+It would now appear that the spy had run her course, that the Second
+Bureau, implacable in its hate for this detestable business, would
+immediately proceed with her prosecution as a spy. But here Mata Hari
+had them utterly defeated. With all their knowledge of her treachery,
+the French authorities were absolutely powerless to lay a finger upon
+her.
+
+
+
+
+                             _Chapter Ten_
+
+
+There are few measures of policy on which any general measure of
+agreement may be expected of the corps of ambassadors in any national
+capital, but there is one which instantly draws them together into an
+articulate unanimity, and that is any threat against their common
+diplomatic privileges. These privileges are guarded so jealously that
+any breach is regarded almost as gravely as a violation of territory.
+Consequently, when it was found that one amiable but indiscreet diplomat
+had suffered his diplomatic mail-pouch to be used as the means of
+conveying a treasonable correspondence against the security of the
+nation to whom he was credited there was much impotent indignation among
+the French officials. But they had to proceed with the greatest
+delicacy. It would never do to expose the indiscreet diplomat, because
+that would alienate the sympathy of others who might feel that they were
+being submitted to the same undignified suspicion and were having their
+correspondence examined by spies. While all were not so treated, some
+were.
+
+Again, these were dark days in France. A Ministerial crisis was imminent
+upon the question of national security; mutiny had broken out in a
+portion of the army; as a result of the venomous campaign of enemy
+agents working upon a war-weary and discouraged populace, revolution was
+threatening to raise its grisly features in the streets of French
+cities; and, quick to sense this state of internal weakness, some
+neutral countries whose friendship for the Allies had never been very
+demonstrative were ready to provoke a quarrel in order to range
+themselves on the side of the apparently victorious Central Powers, and
+were only restrained by the wisdom of a few men armed with the power to
+hold in check those of their countrymen who listened for inspiration to
+the indefatigable German agents. To precipitate a hostile declaration or
+even to embitter relations with one of these neutral states might be the
+turning-point in the war against the Allies. A revival of confidence in
+the leaders of French opinion and a successful military campaign were
+alike necessary before the French could openly proclaim the application
+of a high-handed policy over the abuse of diplomatic privileges.
+
+Therefore, Mata Hari was allowed to retain her freedom and to continue
+her treacherous activity, secure from molestation by the French
+authorities until she committed some blunder. The only consolation was
+that, with a little luck, they could continue to learn what military
+secrets she unearthed by maintaining the supervision of her
+correspondence.
+
+With her work at Vittel accomplished, Mata Hari was free to enjoy the
+more congenial atmosphere of the capital, having renounced her intention
+of surrendering what she admitted was a life of debauchery in order to
+consecrate herself to the care of her one true lover. It would seem that
+she was incapable of denying herself any sensual pleasure. Being in
+Paris with the gratifying feeling of having accomplished safely a piece
+of difficult and dangerous espionage, she plunged whole-heartedly into
+the old life with a gusto stimulated by denial. Whatever luxuries could
+be provided in the capital were procured to replace the substitutes she
+had been forced to endure in half-starved Vittel. She reappeared on the
+stage, to the admiration of the officers on leave and the Parisians who
+sought distraction from the accumulation of troubles that threatened
+their entire happiness; in a few houses, wealthy old bachelors whose
+selfish profligacy overcame their fears for the national safety,
+continued to dispense a furtive hospitality which was incomplete without
+the central figure of the entrancing _bayadère_, with or without her
+veils. Vittel must have seemed very remote and poor Captain Marov
+completely forgotten in the mad whirl of pleasure which so soon engulfed
+her.
+
+However, her stay in the French capital was of short duration. She
+departed this time on what seemed a perfectly legitimate journey, for
+she had a well-advertised dancing engagement to fulfil in the Spanish
+capital. There was a repetition of her former triumphs in this
+engagement, for she was so favourably received that her visit was
+extended. During this stay in Madrid, Mata Hari was lionized by the
+artistic groups among whom she had already many friends, but the artists
+did not monopolize her time. Conspicuous among her friends at this time
+were Lieutenants von Kalle and von Kroon, the naval and military
+_attachés_ at the German Embassy and known to be the heads of their
+respective Intelligence departments in that country.
+
+All during the summer of 1915 the agents of France and Britain were
+reporting to Paris and London that most of Mata Hari’s time was spent in
+the company of these two officers and that one time she had paid a hasty
+visit to Barcelona, where she went directly to the headquarters of the
+German secret service in that city and returned without apparently
+having visited anyone else. They further reported that she was talking
+of paying a visit to Holland early in the next year.
+
+Before embarking for this visit, however, Mata Hari returned to Paris
+and resumed her old life, which had been interrupted by the Madrid
+engagement. She made no public appearances at the Paris music-halls but
+she continued to frequent the dens of midnight revelry where officers
+went to pass the feverish hours of liberty granted by a few short days
+of leave in Paris. The officers of the Second Bureau were anxious to
+learn what line of investigation she was now following in accordance
+with the secret instructions hinted at in the first intercepted message
+from Holland, but her activities were so cleverly conducted that no hint
+of her purpose escaped the secrecy surrounding her. Then came a ray of
+hope for the much harassed officials of the Second Bureau. In January of
+1916 Mata Hari left France after having announced her intention of
+returning to her home in Holland. There seemed little doubt in their
+minds that this was merely an opportunity to consult with her employers,
+but, on the other hand, there did not appear much likelihood that Mata
+Hari would attempt to return to the scene of her successful spying, so
+that Paris would be well rid of an undesirable guest. No obstacles were
+placed in the way of her departure. But her passing was signalled to the
+British.
+
+Accordingly, when the boat in which Mata Hari was travelling touched at
+Falmouth, the police ordered her to accompany them to London for
+examination as a dangerous person. The chief of Scotland Yard at that
+time was Sir Basil Thomson, who has left an account of the interviews in
+his book of reminiscences. Thomson admits that he was impressed by the
+intelligence the spy displayed in her answers to his questions and her
+quick repartee. He was not impressed, however, by her beauty, which, he
+says, had begun to fade (she was then forty and had lived through ten
+dissipated years which must have left their mark on her features), and
+she was growing plump.
+
+Thomson did not mince matters in the two interviews he had with her. In
+fact, he quite frankly accused her of carrying on a correspondence with
+the enemy. This Mata Hari denied as an absurdity, only to be confronted
+with the names of the various German agents with whom she had spent so
+much of her time while in Madrid. Instead of being at all disconcerted
+by this revelation of his knowledge of her actions, Mata Hari merely
+expressed astonishment, assuring him that she had no idea von Kalle and
+von Kroon were engaged in Intelligence work; she knew them as _attachés_
+at the Legation, but not as the chiefs of the German secret service in
+Spain.
+
+This first interview ended in a stalemate. A painstaking search of the
+actress’ baggage was no more profitable. There appeared no reason why
+Mata Hari’s departure for Holland should be further delayed. The cause
+of the delay and the reason why the interview was resumed lie in a fact
+upon which Thomson retains a discreet silence.
+
+The President of the Council in Holland had written to the head of
+Scotland Yard begging him to obtain Mata Hari’s deportation. There was
+no secret about the Dutch premier’s infatuation for the dancer; that was
+a piece of scandal which no longer excited surprised comment. But it is
+uncommon for a statesman to request a friendly nation to deport his
+lover. There can be little doubt that Van der Linden foresaw her tragic
+end if she persisted in such dangerous employment, and he feared that
+the redoubtable Scotland Yard authorities might penetrate her secret
+unless he could get her home without delay.
+
+Therefore, Sir Basil Thomson decided to have one more attempt to extract
+some admission from his captive and, if he failed, then to allow her to
+proceed to Holland with a caution, thereby performing a humane action by
+liberating a known spy and at the same time do a small favor to the
+Dutch premier, which might be added to the Allies’ credit balance, then
+at a low ebb in certain quarters in Holland.
+
+The second interview had a curious termination. The examination was even
+more severe than the first, but, while it failed to extract any of the
+knowledge of her activities that Thomson wanted, it did at last induce
+Mata Hari to admit that she was a spy. But not for Germany. She was, she
+said, employed by the French. This was a piece of sheer stupidity, for
+the dancer should at least have known that the French had enough
+difficulty in watching their enemies to have any desire to spy upon
+their friends. In any event, the risk she ran by lying was great because
+all Thomson had to do was to ask the French military mission in London
+to verify this statement.
+
+Of course, we know now that Thomson was under no misapprehension, for he
+had been forewarned of Mata Hari’s journey by the French. But he had
+failed to obtain orthodox evidence which would have enabled him to lay
+the case before a British court with any hope of securing a conviction.
+He told her, therefore, that as she had done no injury to his country he
+would permit her to depart for Holland. He added a piece of friendly
+counsel which the dancer would have done well to heed. He advised her
+not to leave Holland during the war and solemnly warned her against
+trying to visit either Germany or France. Probably profoundly relieved
+at the prospect of release from this very embarrassing situation, Mata
+Hari said:
+
+“Sir, I thank you from my heart. What I have been doing I will do no
+more. You may trust me implicitly.”
+
+So Mata Hari was allowed to step out of the frying-pan _and_ the fire.
+But she ignored both Thomson’s warning and her own promise. Apparently
+she did not know that the British agents in Holland and Germany were
+warned to be on the lookout for her, and that the chief of the English
+counter-espionage service was kept informed of her movements.
+
+Almost immediately upon her arrival in Amsterdam, Mata Hari paid a visit
+to the tobacco shop kept by Max Neuder. This establishment was already
+under the close surveillance of the Allies’ agents, for it was known to
+be a “letter-box” for numerous German agents. The postal censors knew
+that they had a prize each time they intercepted a letter addressed to
+the innocent-looking tobacco shop. Mata Hari’s visits to this place were
+promptly reported to headquarters in London and in Paris, thus
+confirming further the existing suspicion against her.
+
+At the time of the dancer’s return to her home, the German authorities
+had become exasperated by the audacious exploits of an English agent who
+defied their best efforts at detection. When, finally, they received an
+awe-inspiring rebuke from the All Highest for a particularly impudent
+performance by this spy, it was decided to call in the aid of Mata Hari,
+to whom the man was believed to be known.
+
+In order to appreciate the situation which faced the dancer one must
+have at least a glimpse of her opponent.
+
+The fame of “Mr. C.” is already known to those American secret agents
+whose work lay along naval lines. Few people either in his own country
+or abroad knew that this symbol covered the identity of an English army
+captain called Reilly, who was the Admiralty’s “ace” in espionage.
+Reilly had an extraordinary faculty for acquiring a perfect knowledge of
+languages and for impersonating exactly the type of people whose
+language he was speaking. To this he added the advantages of his Irish
+ancestors’ quickness of thought, fertile imagination, readiness of
+tongue, and unbounded courage. He knew several European countries better
+than he knew his own.
+
+Reilly’s most astounding _coup_ against the Germans reads like a
+romance. It has rarely been equalled, and only excelled by his own later
+exploits in Russia.
+
+An order had been sent to German army headquarters to send a responsible
+officer to receive instructions on naval policy from the Emperor. The
+man chosen was an unknown junior officer, for the staff had their own
+ideas concerning responsibility. However, he displayed considerable
+intelligence and a broad knowledge of naval and military matters during
+the explanation of the new submarine policy which was laid before him.
+He requested amplification of indefinite points, clarity in place of
+some obscurities, and a detailed instruction upon the army’s
+co-operation to produce the desired political effect. His alertness and
+zeal so impressed the seniors that they were convinced that their policy
+would not be misinterpreted at army headquarters, and the Emperor was so
+struck by the amiable young officer that he invited him to lunch.
+
+The visitor to the Kaiser’s luncheon table was “Mr. C.” the British
+Admiralty agent.
+
+Reilly exhibited the signs of a master-craftsman in this performance. He
+displayed a technique that shows how profoundly he studied the men
+against whom he was working. It was not so well known then as now, that
+the German headquarters staff frequently courted disaster in employing
+young and inexperienced officers upon tasks that are usually delegated
+to more experienced men. The classic example is that recounted in von
+Kluck’s memoirs, where a visiting colonel from the staff overrode this
+army commander’s orders and ignored the general plan for the invasion of
+Belgium in order to impose his own ideas upon the handling of the
+situation.
+
+Reilly’s close study of the men he was watching must have acquainted him
+with this peculiarity of the staff. How he should have known who was
+entrusted with the mission I do not pretend to know, but it will look
+less like a miracle when the reader knows that during many months of the
+war one of Prince Rupprecht’s staff majors was a British agent, and that
+he contrived to keep his employers well furnished with information in
+spite of the vigilant observation of other men who were jealous of his
+influence with their commander and who sought his downfall in order to
+occupy his place.
+
+How Reilly contrived to waylay or kidnap his victim in order to
+impersonate him remains a mystery, and will probably continue to do so,
+for the files of the British secret service are well nigh inaccessible.
+
+Nor is it known how long it was before the German authorities realized
+they had been duped. Their side of the question is no less enshrouded in
+silence that is likely to remain impenetrable, unless one of the actors
+should choose to speak. But before dismissing Captain Reilly to make way
+for Mata Hari, space might be found for mention of another sensational
+_coup_.
+
+After the war he was sent to Russia, where he struck up an acquaintance
+with Trotsky, then Commissioner of War, who introduced him to Lenin. The
+leader of the revolution speedily recognized that Reilly’s great
+knowledge of Europe made him a decided acquisition in the Foreign
+Office. It was while acting as an official in this department that the
+British agent saw a letter which he judged would be of interest to his
+employers. This was the famous Zinovief letter which was instrumental in
+wrecking MacDonald’s first labour government in England.
+
+But the Russian secret police had come to suspect him during an absence
+from his post in connection with the disposal of this document. The G.
+P. U. have an unenviable reputation as a power for vengeance. When
+Reilly was travelling back to Russia, their secret agents picked up his
+trail in Berlin and accompanied the train to the frontier. No sooner was
+the frontier line passed than these agents took Reilly off the train
+and, without even the apology of a trial, riddled his body with bullets.
+
+Such, then, was the man whom Mata Hari was called upon to expose. Her
+choice in the search depended entirely upon her acquaintance with the
+agent who was supposed to be operating. Her meeting with this agent
+antedated the war and took place in a Balkan town. Mata Hari had been
+instructed at that time to scrape up an acquaintance with the man who
+was believed to be in possession of some exceedingly valuable knowledge
+much envied by the Germans. Knowing that he was an old Indian army
+officer, Mata Hari thought that her imaginary Hindu origin might serve
+as a suitable basis of common interest. She approached the British
+agent, therefore, and said to him:
+
+“Have we not met before? Ah yes. In India, was it not?”
+
+“More likely in Berlin,” was the uncompromising retort, which should
+have warned Mata Hari that the British were fully aware of her
+activities long before war broke out.
+
+However, this lesson never seems to have been completely mastered by
+Mata Hari, and as she was most probably too vain to report these snubs
+to her employers, they were unable to warn her that they were portents
+of danger. But her efforts to locate the man who was causing so much
+uneasiness at Fräulein Lesser’s headquarters proved completely
+unavailing, and after having employed herself about the usual haunts of
+Intelligence agents in Amsterdam and Antwerp, the dancer spent some
+little time in Germany, where she had no professional engagements to
+fulfil.
+
+It would be an insult to the undoubted intelligence of the chiefs of the
+German secret service to suppose that they entertained any great hope of
+success that Mata Hari would have their intended victim surrendered to
+her by some chance encounter. They were much too wise to be so sanguine
+of fate’s friendly assistance, and much too subtle to admit a limit to
+their resources. They planned a _coup_ which was intended to relieve
+them of much anxiety on the score of Belgian spies.
+
+The information concerning the dropping of enemy agents behind their
+lines must have been exceedingly welcome to the German Intelligence
+staff, for they were enduring much annoyance from the existence of an
+efficient and well-organized counter-espionage service in addition to
+the extending activity of energetic spies. The amount of spying and
+counter-spying which went on in Belgium must have been phenomenal. The
+Allies had the assistance of practically every Belgian in the occupied
+territory who possessed the necessary hardihood and who was capable of
+responding to the claims of patriotism. This patriotic motive placed the
+invading army under a severe handicap, since the best minds were thus
+employed against them, either actively in espionage or passively in the
+resistance of their own agents.
+
+But the famous Stieber (and Fouché before him) had found that felons and
+crooks, if poor material for spies, made excellent counter-spies. Thus,
+while occupying France and Belgium, the Germans organized regular gaol
+deliveries of every convict who would undertake the malodorous work of
+treachery in return for his liberty. These hired renegades proved of
+incalculable value in the famous sweep which resulted in the seizure of
+the sixty-six French agents. The most notorious of them, Armand Jeannes,
+boasted that he had betrayed no fewer than one hundred and twenty-six of
+his fellow countrymen and women.
+
+Every class of Belgian was engaged in the task of outwitting their
+invading hosts. Simple peasants did what they could, educated men like
+the Judge Lacroix accomplished infinitely more because they occupied
+influential positions, and cultured women like Louise de Bettignies
+achieved marvels of deception.
+
+Louise de Bettignies deserves special mention because her refinement
+seemed to render her singularly unfitted for the rough and active work
+of organizing a corps of spies to operate in British interests. Yet this
+girl, and others like her, developed a resource, a courage, and a
+fortitude of which many men could justifiably be proud. One day, while
+somewhat of an amateur at the business, Louise was trying to cross the
+frontier into Holland without the necessary papers, when she was
+overtaken by a patrol. Her message was so ill-concealed that exposure
+must certainly follow capture, and the prospect of death before a firing
+party did not appeal to Louise. She preferred to risk another form of
+calamity. Somehow or other she had to cross a wire fence which was
+charged with 14,000 volts of electric current. In her flight from the
+advancing patrol the girl had scrambled to the top of the roof of a
+stable and, seeing that she had been observed, she took a flying leap
+which barely carried her over the sinister barrier into safety.
+
+Thereafter, Louise de Bettignies resolved to use her brain in order to
+spare her body. Two of her deceptions are masterly. Her usual disguise
+was that of a lace-seller, which enabled her to tramp from village to
+village, organizing her little band of spies, but this did not spare her
+from periodical searches by the alert women agents of the German police.
+Her principal tormentor was one woman agent who made a practice of
+seizing and searching Louise on sight. On one occasion this active
+counter-espionage agent encountered Louise at a moment when the girl
+would gladly have been spared a meeting, because she was carrying papers
+that would certainly involve a terrible punishment were they discovered.
+It was a stormy, wet day, and Louise was carrying an umbrella which she
+humanely offered as cover to the police agent who fell into step beside
+her. For once they chatted more or less amicably, but it is
+characteristic of the devotion to their duty which distinguishes the
+good agents, that the German woman did not permit this courtesy to
+interfere with her duty. As soon as they arrived at the first town
+Louise was ordered to enter the police station and submit to a very
+thorough search.
+
+Although the girl was stripped naked and all her possessions examined
+with minute care, nothing of interest was revealed. But the search
+appeared to have frightened the girl; she was abnormally agitated when
+informed that she might proceed on her way. This agitation was stage
+play. Louise knew very well that she was under suspicion of being in
+possession of secret documents, and at all costs she had to draw the
+attention of the agents from the hiding-place of her treasure. But their
+attentions were considered sufficient excuse for the girl’s apparent
+agitation, and the police saw nothing extraordinary in the fact that she
+should walk out of their station without her umbrella and have to return
+some minutes later to recover it. That mere act was a fine stroke, for
+it showed the enemy agents that this article was a trifle which could be
+easily overlooked when, in point of fact, the papers were concealed in a
+hollow rib of the umbrella. No ruse could have distracted attention from
+the hiding-place better than this.
+
+On yet another occasion this same spy was requested by the British to
+furnish them with information which would enable them to locate enemy
+gun positions in the neighbourhood of Lille. The task of giving such
+exceedingly exact information was beyond the capability of any code.
+Nothing but a very accurate map could suffice. Nevertheless, Louise had
+among her many assistants several who could draw a map with creditable
+accuracy and also a photographer who was able to apply his art to the
+reproduction of a minute copy of this work. The precious map was
+eventually reduced to the size of a large pin head, but even this had to
+be carefully concealed. At last a lens was removed from the frame of a
+pair of spectacles, the paper stuck on the edge, and the glass replaced.
+It went safely over the frontier in this hiding-place and the English
+were able to undertake one of the most successful counter-battery shoots
+which marked the war.
+
+Louise de Bettignies was eventually caught. She was then on the verge of
+nervous breakdown produced by her unremitting labours, and her
+subsequent examination proved exceedingly valuable to the Germans. The
+girl and some of her companions, whom she unwillingly involved, were
+sentenced to death, although the sentence in her case was commuted to
+one of twenty-seven years imprisonment. Louise died in Cologne shortly
+before the armistice and was accorded full military honours by the
+British and French when her body was disinterred for burial at her own
+home.
+
+In order to overcome this menace of spying in Belgium where the enemy
+agents were giving evidence of increased audacity, the Germans
+determined to make use of their accomplished instrument, Mata Hari. The
+dancer was sent back to Paris with instructions to obtain the necessary
+information which would enable them to break up this nest of spies.
+After her experience in London it was out of the question to send her
+back by that route. Had she not promised Sir Basil Thomson to avoid
+France? Had she not also broken her promise to him to remain away from
+Germany? She had visited that country and it was not improbable that the
+chief of Scotland Yard had been informed of the violation of her
+undertaking. So she went back to France through Switzerland and, thanks
+to her diplomatic associations, she experienced no difficulties at the
+carefully-guarded frontier.
+
+Left to herself, Mata Hari seems to have been equal to most occasions,
+but now that she was only the instrument of a prearranged scheme, the
+whole affair was sadly bungled. It was conducted in full accordance with
+a routine that never varied. It lacked the subtle touch of the
+master-spy. To appreciate the significance of her subsequent actions it
+is necessary to understand another phase of spy tactics.
+
+It is impossible to apply the ordinary standards of conduct to the
+well-trained spy. Not only is his psychology a thing apart, but every
+action must be studied, nothing can be left to chance if suspicion is to
+be averted. Thus, what would be a simple, automatic action on the part
+of an innocent person becomes a tortuously complex proceeding for a spy.
+The most severe test of all must naturally come when the secret agent
+finds he is being watched by his opponents. Unless the man has an
+abnormally strong character he is likely to become panic-stricken when
+he first learns that the police are observing his movements and he may
+commit some foolish indiscretion which will lead to his conviction as an
+enemy agent. To guard against this contingency all the German spies were
+carefully instructed in their behaviour should this emergency arise.
+Calculating that a bold action would best divert suspicion, their agents
+were instructed how to act in the manner best designed to convince the
+watchers of their loyalty.
+
+The most popular plan was for the spy, who felt he had incurred
+suspicion, to march boldly into the headquarters of the enemy and
+volunteer for service in _their_ interests. So completely was this plan
+worked out that the agents were actually furnished with suitable
+information for their reports should they be engaged. This information
+was usually of the most terrible nature imaginable. The Germans were
+able to expose people whom they desired to see punished, some for quite
+harmless reasons, others for spite, and in not a few cases so that
+superior agents might be spared the necessity of paying for services
+which had become unavailable or undesirable.
+
+At first blush it would seem that such an audacious thing as offering to
+serve as a spy would allay suspicion but, on the contrary, it had the
+very opposite effect. The German espionage is probably unique in this
+respect of employing volunteer spies. Not only does it account for the
+ease by which other nations have “planted” their own agents in that
+service, but it makes compulsory the employment of a large number of
+other agents to keep a watchful eye on these volunteers whose loyalty
+has been submitted to no severe test. No other nation readily recruits
+its agents in this way. The work is too confidential, demands such
+unquestioned trust and imposes such heavy responsibilities, that the
+agents are most often selected with great care from among men whose
+loyalty and faithfulness are beyond question. In not a few cases a man’s
+patriotism is the only thing which can be appealed to in order to induce
+him to overcome a natural prejudice for a profession which so often
+implies the betrayal of people whose trust he has deliberately sought.
+Thus, when the agent has already been subjected to test before
+employment and has been found to possess the necessary qualifications,
+it is not so necessary to subject him to a perpetual supervision as was
+the case in the German system, where many notorious wrongdoers were
+employed and where enemy deserters were greedily encouraged. Certainly
+these types proved easy to discipline because they were in constant fear
+of exposure by their paymasters should their services become either
+undesirable or unsatisfactory. On the other hand, the police force
+necessary to control their doubtful agents had to be elaborate and it
+proved to be one of the most efficient departments of the service and
+many of their best agents were so employed. For the most part they were
+entirely devoid of scruples; they had no compunction in denouncing the
+men they watched, and denunciation frequently followed some harmless
+deviation from the strict path of duty.
+
+To volunteer for secret-service work on behalf of a nation that recruits
+its agents with some degree of care is to incur the immediate suspicion
+that some ulterior motive inspires the action. In spite of this
+doctrine, which was so generally accepted by the Intelligence services
+outside of Germany, that the Germans themselves could hardly have been
+wholly unacquainted with it, they continued to instruct their agents to
+volunteer for enrollment in the enemy secret service should they ever
+have reason to believe that they were under suspicion.
+
+Naturally, the agent was placed in a very difficult situation. First,
+the counter-espionage agent of his own service, charged with supervising
+him, might imagine that the agent was acting falsely and take drastic
+measures for disciplining him. Second, the agent had to accept whatever
+mission was allotted to him by his new employers, and after making
+pretence of performing it had to present a report which must bear the
+scrutiny of experts. He was, therefore, running a double risk. The work
+had one very useful purpose, however, in revealing those points on which
+the enemy were most interested, and for this reason served its purpose.
+The agent, having volunteered for service, usually reported this fact
+immediately to his superior, to whom he also communicated the nature of
+the information he was required to provide. If the German headquarters
+approved of his action they supplied the man with the necessary replies
+to meet his requirements, and thus deceived the enemy. But spies working
+in two camps are never trusted until they have given unmistakable proof
+of their loyalty and, on the Allied side at least, an offer of
+enlistment was usually enough to bring a person under grave suspicion of
+having been sent by the other side. If the volunteer was known to be in
+the employ of the German service, the action taken greatly depended upon
+what purpose he could be made to serve.
+
+How terribly dangerous the course of volunteering for this service
+sometimes proved to be is illustrated by the case of Princess
+Wisnievsky. Although entitled to the rank of princess, she was not born
+to the purple; it was an acquisition by marriage. Her beginnings were so
+humble that she began at the very opposite end of the social ladder, for
+she was deserted by her unknown parents in the streets of Paris and was
+educated at public expense until she was in a position to look after
+herself. Being of an enterprising nature, the future princess came to an
+early decision that a life of independence was preferable to the irksome
+restraint of a state orphanage. She took the first opportunity to embark
+on a career. After many vicissitudes she became a rival to Mata Hari in
+her profession. At the age of thirty-three she resembled a miniature
+League of Nations, having taken as lovers an Egyptian, an Argentine, a
+Serbian, an Italian, an Englishman, and a German, before marrying an
+indisputable Polish prince who was a naturalized Italian. To complete
+this lady’s amazing international complications, it is worth mentioning
+that she finally was lost to view in a Spanish prison, charged with the
+murder of a Canadian.
+
+The German lover was a member of his country’s secret service and,
+having found that the countess (it was before her marriage and she had
+elevated herself to the nobility with a title of her own choice) could
+be of use to him in his work, he induced the feather-brained lady to
+enroll as a member of the same service. Her romantic mind promptly
+responded to the lure of adventure and she considered herself
+particularly fitted for the execution of confidential missions among the
+diplomats of Europe. But it was not long before the indiscretions in
+which she indulged brought her under the unfavourable notice of the
+French secret police. She was at the time editing a magazine which
+specialized in foreign politics, a labour which was found to cloak her
+spying under the guise of diplomacy. Her work was done so clumsily that
+it was felt most advantageous to allow her to continue in spreading
+misinformation through her review. For some time the princess was a joke
+among the men of the French secret service, until one day one of them
+frightened her into volunteering for the work of a spy in French
+interests. She was employed because the French were anxious to learn
+what the enemy wished them to believe upon certain subjects. They
+surmised that the lady would apply to her German employers for the
+correct form of the information she was asked to furnish, and by
+following her it was hoped to learn who was the head of her group. There
+was nothing to learn until the lady herself suggested how she should be
+employed. On being granted permission to act independently, she went
+direct to San Sebastián, where she was given a very complete report upon
+the situation in Spain, precisely as the German authorities wished that
+situation to be understood by France. At that time Spain was in the
+predicament of not knowing which of the belligerents to support, but the
+San Sebastián propagandists were giving to the voice of the Spanish
+people a strong German accent, and it was hoped that the French might be
+deceived by sending back the double spy with a false account of the
+situation which pretended to come from some of the diplomats who
+contributed to the princess’ review. Knowing its origin, the French were
+able to understand a difficult situation much better with the aid of the
+comments which the princess furnished.
+
+Between Mata Hari and the Princess Wisnievsky there was a vast
+difference in spite of the few points of similarity in their lives. The
+titled lady was never dangerous, but Mata Hari was an artist, and that
+profession demands intelligence of a very high order. Had she been left
+to obtain information on the spy system in Belgium, it is probable that
+she would have tried another method than this, employing a greater
+finesse. Instead, it bears the unmistakable mark of the German secret
+service and its inability to discard outworn methods.
+
+One morning Mata Hari called at the office of the Second Bureau and
+asked to interview a responsible officer. It is doubtful whether any
+visitor ever reached the inner sanctum of this almost impenetrable
+department with less delay. Not one, but a whole group of responsible
+officers awaited her pleasure. Each member of the group knew of Mata’s
+employment as a spy and the deadly measure of her achievement, and all
+hoped that sooner or later she would commit some indiscretion which
+would enable them to penetrate the intricate defences she had erected
+about herself and so grasp the tangible proof of her guilt. But for the
+moment there was only one fear that was common to them all, and that was
+the fear that some overzealous agent in pressing his enquiries had
+caused her to suspect that the Second Bureau were interested in what she
+was doing, and that the visit was merely the spy’s customary method of
+self-protection, which would be followed by an increase of precaution
+that would remove from their possession the means of supervising her
+correspondence. If Mata Hari changed her channel of conveying
+information, the Second Bureau would have to begin again at the
+beginning. However, their interest in her arrival was interpreted by the
+visitor as a tribute to her personal popularity and aroused no
+suspicion. No woman is proof against her own vanity.
+
+Mata Hari explained that she wished to accept employment in the French
+secret service and recited her qualifications for the work, mentioning
+her numerous acquaintances in influential positions in Berlin and other
+places.
+
+“But,” asked Captain Ledoux, “you will pardon us if we approach this
+question carefully. What is your motive, madame, in volunteering for
+this work? You are a Dutch subject. It cannot be patriotism which urges
+you to undertake the task, and obviously there must be some strong
+motive which inspires you to perform work that might end in your death.”
+
+“There is no question of my patriotism, _mon capitaine_. Nor is there
+any question of treachery, for Germany is not my country. My sympathies
+are with France and I am willing to work for her provided you will pay
+for my services. I am in desperate need of money.”
+
+This was certainly a strange answer, because Mata Hari had just made
+some fresh dancing engagements for which she was well paid and she had
+not spent all the money obtained for the sale of her furniture. Besides,
+she had other means of restoring her finances that were less hazardous
+than engaging in the task of spying against Germany.
+
+“Since you suspect that, because I am only a neutral, I may not be
+animated by motives of loyalty to France,” she continued, “I will give
+you proofs of my sincere attachment to your country. Yes, I will give
+you those proofs before asking to be assigned any work in your service.”
+
+After a little questioning the officers found that there was little
+information they could gather on points which they supposed she might
+have been instructed to inform them. But they did not know the
+tremendous extent of her secret knowledge.
+
+“Do you know, messieurs, how the Moors are being supplied with arms?”
+she asked when their questions had ceased.
+
+“Yes, we know that.”
+
+“You know that they are being landed from submarines, but do you know
+where and when? Naturally you do not or you would have stopped it. Then
+I will tell you if you think that it would be of interest.”
+
+Interest!
+
+Since the beginning of the war the German propagandists had been
+stirring up trouble in Morocco and Algeria among the native population,
+who, as recently as 1912, had shown their willingness to revolt by
+brutally murdering the Europeans as a protest against the French
+protectorate. In order to encourage them to take further steps of open
+antagonism which would detain troops for the maintenance of order, the
+German authorities were providing a supply of modern rifles for the most
+intransigeant. This was regarded as such a severe threat to the French
+colony, in view of the fact that every available soldier was to be
+withdrawn from Morocco for service on the French front, that espionage
+agents had worked laboriously but unsuccessfully to discover how the
+weapons were admitted to the country. That Mata Hari should offer to
+furnish this information filled them with blank amazement. However, one
+of the officers assured her that if she could offer enlightenment on the
+problem there could be no further reason to doubt her loyalty.
+
+“Then, messieurs, if you will watch the harbour of Mehediya during the
+early days of March you will be rewarded. Submarines run their cargoes
+of rifles into that harbour before taking their station at the entrance
+to the Mediterranean sea.”
+
+“That is exceedingly interesting, madame, if true. Suppose you allow us
+a little time to ascertain the truth of the statement. If we find that
+what you say is correct you will be given a mission in our service.
+Would you also mind telling us how you, living here in Paris, should
+have come into possession of such very confidential information?”
+
+“I am frequently required to visit the homes of diplomats to provide
+entertainment to their guests and with some of them I have an intimacy
+which enables me to hear the conversations at their dinner tables. Those
+diplomats are not always as discreet as they should be, messieurs. It
+was at a recent dinner that I heard this conversation about the
+submarines and I thought it might be of value to you.”
+
+After the lapse of only a few days Mata Hari was summoned to appear at
+the office of the Second Bureau, but this time she was not admitted with
+quite so much ease as on her first visit. The French were surer of her
+now. When at last she was admitted to see Captain Ledoux and his
+colonel, she was informed that the information concerning the German
+submarines had been proved correct. The previous night two of these
+craft had been sunk in an attempt to land rifles at Mehediya.
+
+“We have had sufficient proof of your integrity,” said the chief of the
+Second Bureau, “and if you continue as you have begun you will be of the
+greatest value to us. All that now remains is to utilize your services
+to the best advantage. Have you any suggestion to make?”
+
+“Well, _mon colonel_, I have recently signed a contract to dance in
+Brussels. You know that as a Dutch subject I am privileged to move about
+in the territories of the countries at war. It is easy for me to get to
+Brussels from my own country, especially as I have influential friends
+who will help me. What could I do in Brussels? Do you have difficulty in
+conveying instructions to your agents there? One of my diplomat friends
+told me that it was exceedingly difficult to get the required kind of
+information from the agents in occupied territory, because it was so
+hard to tell them what was required. I suggest, therefore, _mon
+colonel_, that you employ me in carrying instructions to the agents whom
+you have already there. Being a woman, I might not know just what to
+look for if I were left to myself, but if there are others to do the
+work I would gladly get in touch with them to carry out your
+instructions.”
+
+“That is a good idea. Prepare yourself for the journey then, and when
+you are ready to depart we will give you a list of our agents in Belgium
+with whom we wish to communicate, and a copy of the instructions we
+would like to have conveyed to them.”
+
+In such simple fashion did Mata Hari carry out the instructions of her
+employers and obtain for them the invaluable documents which meant so
+much to the weary espionage agents confronted with the growing audacity
+of the spies whose actions were invariably obscured by the willing help
+of countless civilians. When the precious list of twelve spies was
+handed to Mata Hari, the officer of the Second Bureau conducting the
+business impressed upon her the necessity of guarding it with her life,
+should such an extreme penalty be exacted in its defence. The value of
+that piece of paper to the Germans, he said, was incalculable, and if
+they knew it was in her possession there was not the slightest doubt
+that they would make strenuous efforts to relieve her of it. The
+instructions were not less valuable because they would convey to the
+enemy knowledge of those points upon which the French most required
+information and naturally those particular things would be guarded with
+redoubled care. The officer then wished her good fortune on her first
+mission for the French.
+
+Of course Mata Hari did not take any special precautions to conceal
+those valuable documents about her person. It was simpler and much
+quicker for the purpose for which they were intended to put them into a
+letter sent by prearranged channels directly to the espionage leaders in
+Holland. Her own journey must, of necessity, be delayed because it was
+inevitable in those war days that she must travel through England, where
+she would take passage on the _Hook of Holland_ steamer. There was no
+alternative to that journey when one was in France. The risk of exposing
+herself to the London police was enormously reduced by the mission she
+was sent on, because the officer at the Second Bureau had already told
+her that she would be “signalled” to them, whose duty it would then be
+to facilitate her passage, but by sending the letter containing the
+required information through her secret and safe private channels it
+would arrive before she did.
+
+What the English police thought about their visitor has not been said.
+It is not to be supposed that the presence of a spy in their midst
+causes any consternation to the police, more especially when that spy’s
+arrival has been “signalled” by other police. To know that a suspected
+or known spy is arriving at Victoria gives the long-suffering London
+“Bobbie” a feeling of joy. It saves him a vast amount of labour in
+tracking him down when the job is reduced to one of mere watching, an
+art in which the men of Scotland Yard excel. Once they have located
+their man they stick to him with the tenacity of the bulldog which is
+the symbol of their breed, and they miss nothing of the other people
+whom he meets. They could appreciate the situation in which Mata Hari
+was placed because they made such good use of the double spy themselves,
+always, or nearly always, to their own advantage. But Mata Hari was a
+problem. They did not like her, they knew too much of her history to
+ever develope any fondness for her and, to be quite frank, they did not
+believe that her sudden conversion was sincere. However, they were
+prepared to accommodate their French colleagues.
+
+When Mata Hari arrived in England it is quite probable that she made
+careful note of the war material collected in the harbour at Dover,
+where she landed. She had an unexpected stroke of good luck in being
+detained a few days in London, where she was able to observe the effects
+of the air raids and to note some of the measures taken to combat them.
+This was information which she had been instructed by the Germans to
+gather in Paris, so that it must be of equal value if applied to London.
+Her detention in the English capital was not altogether unavoidable, but
+since the English police just wanted to make quite certain that there
+was no one in London to whom she might apply in case of necessity, they
+got the clerk at the travel bureau to inform her that there were so many
+applicants for berths on the _Hook of Holland_ steamer that she would
+have to wait some days before one could be allotted to her. When it was
+certain that she had nothing to reveal, the London police had no further
+motive in delaying her, so Mata Hari was informed that another boat was
+available for her journey and that the police would make the necessary
+arrangements for her. The obliging men went further; they escorted her
+to the boat and saw that everything was made comfortable and convenient
+for her.
+
+This obstacle happily surmounted, Mata Hari was able to retire to her
+berth before the ship pulled out of the Medway under its escort, with
+the satisfied feeling that she had outwitted her oldest enemies, had
+completely deceived the French, and had performed another of those
+surprisingly brilliant feats of espionage which are associated with her
+name and which read like romances. A safe haven lay ahead. In Holland
+she would be received gratefully by her employers, there would no longer
+be the strain of living under constant fear of danger, especially that
+danger that creeps up from behind. Instead there would be reunion with
+her lover from whom she had been so long separated and for whom she had
+worked in exile with unfailing success in a series of the boldest
+exploits; there were innumerable old friends of that officer class she
+had learned to adore; and, besides, she was weary of Paris; she needed a
+change of pleasures and a variety in dissipation. Of course, there could
+now be no return to Paris until she went in the wake of the victorious
+German troops to enjoy a truly Roman triumph, with her former French
+lovers as her trophies. It was a pleasant prospect.
+
+
+
+
+                            _Chapter Eleven_
+
+
+The officers of the Second Bureau were not really quite such easy dupes
+as Mata Hari had supposed them to be. True, her first visit to their
+departmental offices had produced a momentary pang of disappointment
+which was speedily dispelled. The reason the spy had given for
+approaching them was her urgent need for money, a very plausible excuse
+for one with her extravagant tastes, but it was learned on enquiry that
+her bank account enjoyed an unaccustomed balance. Thus relieved of their
+first anxiety, that their zeal had alarmed the spy and that she would
+become more cautious than ever, and persuaded that there was a dangerous
+underlying motive for her extraordinary conduct, they decided to allow
+the affair to follow a natural course in the expectation that something
+more might be learned.
+
+The news of the German submarines increased their perplexity. To anyone
+unaware of the tortuous methods of secret services this piece of
+information and the use made of it presents special interest. The
+betrayal seems inexplicable. Here was a woman who pretended to have been
+working in the comparative isolation of a field ambulance in the forward
+area, and had been performing in Spanish theatres, volunteering
+knowledge which had eluded the search of the cleverest agents in the
+French service working with infinitely greater resources. If the
+information was false no good purpose could be served in surrendering
+it. If it was true, how could she have obtained knowledge of it?
+Certainly none of the neutral diplomats in Paris was in any position to
+become acquainted with such a treasured secret as the submarine cruises,
+but even if she had obtained the knowledge from an outside source Mata
+Hari had been a spy too long to be unconscious of the risks she ran by
+committing such a breach of confidence. It was suicide if unauthorized.
+Information of this nature was so jealously guarded that only those
+immediately concerned with the allocation of the duties could ever have
+possession of it (often the submarine commanders received sealed
+orders), and to share such secrets was equivalent to an admission that
+she was in the innermost counsels of the enemy. We have already said
+that it is futile to apply the ordinary standards of conduct to the
+secret-service agent. Here is further proof. The revelation of such
+information to gain the confidence of the enemy is a method advocated in
+the German manual of military Intelligence.
+
+The betrayal is inexplicable to anyone unaware of the prodigious lengths
+to which the harassed German secret service were prepared to go in order
+to purchase their reputation for omniscience. The lives of two submarine
+crews was the price offered to purchase French faith in Mata Hari, so
+that she might secure a confidential mission for the purpose of
+betraying that faith. As an example of German psychology this act would
+be amusing if it were not so amazingly tragic, because the only object
+it could possibly achieve with men accustomed to the curious procedure
+of volunteer agents, was to confirm suspicion. There always did exist
+the possibility that Mata Hari’s offer of service might be genuine, but
+the accuracy of this priceless information she offered as bait removed
+any shadow of doubt that there was some deep underlying purpose.
+
+It would, however, be interesting to know what the crews of other German
+submarines would think of this inhuman bargain which sacrificed their
+comrades to the needs of a secret service who were thus advertising
+their incompetence to deal with a situation that must have been foreseen
+during the many years of study devoted to the plan of invading Belgium.
+Or was the treacherous betrayal a subtle means by which the German naval
+authorities disciplined the recalcitrant crews of two submarines? Was it
+their intention, in throwing victims to the lions, to conceal the hand
+that was becoming too feeble to chastise them? Whatever the motive, the
+incident stands out as a piece of defective psychology; worse than
+inhuman, it was stupid. Instead of producing a feeling of trust in Mata
+Hari it irrevocably condemned her.
+
+The next step was to uncover her real motive. The French had only a dark
+hint that Mata Hari had been instructed to obtain some other information
+than the landing-place of spies dropped from airplanes and the
+preparations for the spring offensive. In her correspondence received
+through the neutral embassy had come a request for her to expedite this
+work, a sure proof of its urgency, so much was known to the French
+through the intercepted message. The surest way to find out what Mata
+Hari was after, was to allow her to make a choice from the many missions
+available. The choice she made, of getting into communication with
+French agents in Belgium, revealed to the French officers the unrest
+caused by their steady repair of the organization that had been crippled
+by the German _coup_ before the battle of Verdun. That Mata Hari was
+under the impression she had been successful in her quest is proved by
+the sequel. But what she did with the two secret documents entrusted to
+her care is an unsolved mystery. That they reached her chiefs is beyond
+doubt, but what channel she used for their conveyance has to this day
+remained a problem.
+
+What of the French betrayal of their agents? Was it not on a par with
+the German betrayal of submarine crews? Not quite.
+
+Shortly after Mata Hari left on her mission the German counter-espionage
+service in Brussels arrested a French agent whose name was on the list
+supplied to Mata Hari. Three weeks later he was shot. That only one man
+from a possible twelve should suffer requires some explanation. The name
+of that one man happened to be the only genuine name on the list and it
+had been put there with a purpose; the other names were all of
+fictitious persons. The selected victim was a traitor who was serving
+two masters without honesty to either, for, while he was working for the
+French and accepting their pay, he was performing a like service and
+receiving a similar reward from the enemy. No nation has any use for the
+double spy of this type; his potential danger is too considerable and he
+is beyond discipline. Since this man was secure behind the German lines,
+he was out of the reach of punishment by the French, but by giving a
+hint of his dual occupation to the German police the punishment was left
+to them. We know that it was carried out efficiently, to the mutual
+satisfaction of both sides.
+
+Now came the question of dealing with Mata Hari. The French argued that
+since she was deliberately betraying them in a way which was bound to
+become known to them, her work in Paris was completed with the
+accomplishment of this mission and she was seeking a safe means of
+escape to Holland, possibly with other and more dangerous knowledge
+gathered from some of her influential and well-informed associates. They
+were determined that she should not reach her German lover who had been
+controlling her work, but, on the other hand, to detain her would arouse
+the suspicion that they knew of her treachery, and they did want her to
+send that list of spies to Holland. First, because it would remove one
+traitor, second, because it might furnish them with the evidence they
+sought to bring about her condemnation. Unfortunately, they did not
+secure tangible evidence of her guilt; that escaped them. The
+co-operation of the London police was, therefore, invited, but even
+under their alert observation and the employment of different methods
+nothing could be learned. During her absence from her hotel the police
+undertook a thorough search of her luggage, but failed to find the
+missing secret documents. Upon which it was assumed that she had
+contrived to slip them through unobserved to her employers. The next
+thing was to render her powerless to commit any further damage to the
+Allied cause.
+
+So, when Mata Hari left London in the dead of night with the comfortable
+feeling that she had outwitted the united secret services of two
+countries and was headed for a tranquil haven where she could afford to
+laugh over danger as only an unpleasant memory, she was wholly
+unprepared for the situation which awaited the dawn. When day broke and
+she went on deck to see the low-lying coast line of her native land she
+was greeted by the sight of unbroken sea. Nothing else was visible. When
+she addressed a question to one of the ship’s officers the awful
+realization that she had been made the victim of the preposterous humour
+of the London police (a sense of humour that often has a salty flavour)
+was revealed in his reply.
+
+“We shall not land for another two days, madame,” said the officer.
+
+“What, does the journey to Holland take so long now?” she asked in
+dismay.
+
+“Holland? Why Holland?” asked the officer. “We are bound for Spain and
+you will be in Cadiz in two days’ time—that is, if the submarines do not
+get us.”
+
+And of all the places in the world the one for which she had least
+desire to visit was the Spanish capital, to which she must go from
+Cadiz.
+
+
+
+
+                            _Chapter Twelve_
+
+
+When Mata Hari arrived in Madrid she was almost as destitute of means as
+when the inhospitable doors of her Dutch home had been banged behind
+her, fourteen years earlier. The only difference was that the first
+expulsion had been at a time when she was comparatively without
+experience in the profession of making one’s way in the world with no
+other acquisition than native wit; her arts of fascination had only been
+exercised to procure her own gratification of vanity, her conquests of
+men mostly theoretical, for her practice had resulted in failure. Now
+she had the assurance of a varied and successful experience. With
+unerring instinct she chose the right spot for opening the Spanish
+campaign, for this redoubtable woman was very far from confessing
+personal defeat. The Ritz Hotel, which she chose for her residence, had
+the recommendation of being the most expensive in the city and
+accustomed to the reception of guests with a fine disregard for the days
+upon which bills should be paid, so accustomed were they to unlimited
+credit. It was also the rendezvous for the members of the foreign
+diplomatic corps and the numerous officers attached to the various
+embassies for special war-time duties. For these two reasons the Ritz
+Hotel was the most appropriate headquarters for a lady whose first
+requirement was an accommodating male who would alleviate her current
+financial straits.
+
+But in this rendezvous of officers the task of finding a suitable
+companion proved more difficult than usual. It would be bad policy to
+openly court the friendship of the German officers, as this would
+naturally attract the attention of their enemies: the British would, as
+usual, have been warned of her coming and would avoid her like the pest;
+the Spaniards do not enjoy a high reputation among the frail because
+their devotion usually halts just before the time when hotel bills have
+to be paid. There remained the French. With a little manœuvring on her
+part Mata Hari secured a table in the dining room next to that occupied
+by the French military _attaché_. From the outset she employed the
+customary artless advances by which hotel acquaintances are formed,
+beginning with the commonplace greetings of neighbours as they take
+their seats for the meal. With a woman of Mata Hari’s talents it is
+astonishing how far a little conversation may be made to go if
+accompanied by the right gesture, and she was an artist in gesture. But
+on this occasion every art failed, every advance was repulsed, every
+tentative movement was checked by a frigid courtesy which plainly
+indicated that the French officer had no intention of swallowing the
+bait which the dancer invitingly dangled before his eyes. According to
+the rules of her game, the man who should most easily have fallen victim
+to her charm was invincible.
+
+This attitude raised doubts in Mata Hari’s mind. Could it be possible
+that the French officials knew of her employment by the enemy? This made
+an interview with the German officials a necessity; it had already
+become desirable, in view of her necessity to have money. She had, and
+still has, many enthusiastic admirers in Spain. One ambassador from that
+country had cause to regret his relations with her, and a Senator is
+still among her staunchest adherents. Within a few days she was
+surrounded by her customary courtiers collected from various grades of
+Spanish society. But they proved the most unsatisfactory court she had
+ever had in attendance, and as helpers Mata Hari must have found them
+very inefficient, since they were unable to give her any aid in
+ascertaining whether she could make her way back to Paris. From the
+beginning it must have been apparent that the vigilance of the British
+fleet made an attempt to reach Holland well-nigh impossible. With a flat
+purse and an urgent need for advice and assistance, Mata Hari turned to
+the German officials for aid, and received it. Unfortunately, she
+immediately got an undesirable amount of publicity which deprived her of
+many former Spanish friends whose sympathies were against her employers
+and who were in favour of supporting the Allies. A well-known
+journalist, Ezequiel Endriz, published a series of articles called “The
+Lady of the White Furs” in the popular Madrid paper _El Liberal_, in
+which he spoke quite frankly of the relations between the chief of the
+German espionage service in Madrid and the dancer who was staying at the
+Ritz Hotel. The Allied officers in the capital were already aware that
+Mata Hari had been employed by von Kroon before these articles were
+published, but this showed that the dancer was burning her boats
+publicly in having herself proclaimed as a German spy.
+
+
+Lieutenant von Kroon, naval _attaché_ at the German Embassy, was the
+head of the German espionage service in Madrid, and promptly devoted
+himself to the protection of the dancer, but he does not appear to have
+acted with any special display of either generosity or tact. None of the
+German officials in Spain have competed for the posthumous honours of
+Mata Hari’s friendship; only von Kroon had the misfortune to be found
+out, and could not deny the honour if he would. As an easy method of
+providing her with finances this officer decided to employ Mata Hari in
+his own department until some instructions were received for her
+disposal from the chiefs under whom she had been serving while in
+France.
+
+Von Bernstorff, von Papen, and Boy Ed in the United States were not the
+only accredited diplomatic agents whose privileged immunity was the
+cloak for illicit activities. In Holland, and Switzerland, too, the
+German officials were at the heads of extensive organizations
+controlling a horde of spies. Spain shared with these countries the
+doubtful honour of being a fruitful breeding-ground, only in her case
+she was trebly inflicted. San Sebastián was the headquarters of the
+famous “Big Three” who directed German propaganda in neutral countries;
+Madrid was the collecting station for information; and Barcelona, with
+its anarchistic population, was a recruiting station from which Germany
+was able to enroll as many spies as she desired.
+
+Spain was a regular battle-ground for all the secret services during the
+war, and some of the most thrilling dramas of spies and counter-spies
+are buried in the unwritten history of that country during the four
+years of world conflict. The German authorities made strenuous efforts
+to swing the country over to the side of the Central Powers. How nearly
+they succeeded has only recently been made public, but the English and
+French Intelligence Departments were under no illusions during the time
+the efforts to influence the Spaniards were being made; they knew that
+nothing short of the personal influence of King Alfonso, with the
+support of a relatively few loyal but influential adherents, saved the
+country from participation in the war on the side of the Central Powers.
+While much has been written on the skilful diplomacy displayed by the
+Allied representatives in restraining the Spanish people from taking the
+step which would have caused Spain to sink from the position of a second
+rate power to one still lower, no one has ever done justice to the lady
+who accomplished more than the entire Diplomatic Corps in keeping the
+country neutral. The inimitable Mistinguette, still the idol of Parisian
+theatre-goers, was by far the most effective diplomatist in the field.
+Her startling exploits in Switzerland as a French secret agent would
+make a volume of delightful adventure, spiced with ready wit, but her
+task in Spain was a graver affair, calling for an infinite tact, charm,
+and intelligence. One day the French nation, not usually ungenerous in
+its tribute to these qualities and never ungallant to ladies of spirit,
+might remove a reproach by acknowledging the invaluable services
+performed by Mlle. Mistinguette, even if it does not reward her for
+them.
+
+Lieutenant von Kroon took Mata Hari into his employ as well as into the
+intimacy of his friendship. He sent her on another delicate mission to
+Barcelona which affected the internal relations of his department, and
+also to remove her from the close observation of the French and English
+agents. During her absence, efforts were made to learn whether it was
+safe for the Red Dancer to return to Paris, where her services could be
+more advantageously employed. Spain was not the stage for such a
+talented performer. The replies being favourable, if any were received,
+the spy was recalled from Barcelona and given instructions to proceed to
+her post. As Mata Hari was thoroughly convinced that this was not a safe
+proceeding, she consulted the Dutch consul, Mr. de With, to learn
+whether he had received any notification that she would not be received
+favourably in France.
+
+This interview took place at the Ritz Hotel and the talk began by Mata
+Hari requesting the official to procure for her some funds which stood
+to her credit at a Paris bank. This service, she was informed, could
+only be performed by the authorities on the spot, but the dancer never
+appealed to them for aid or advice. She entertained the representative
+of her native land to a detailed (though not more than usually
+authentic) account of her entire life, and finally invited him to
+furnish her with a special letter of recommendation to the French
+authorities in Madrid, as she had some doubts about her reception at the
+frontier. The consul wisely declined to do this, advising Mata Hari that
+if she had a tranquil conscience there was nothing to fear, but that
+this tranquil state of mind was a necessity for all neutrals who desired
+to travel in the belligerent countries. The spy indignantly retorted
+that she was in no need of advice of that nature, her assumed anger only
+serving to convince an official who had come to the meeting ready armed
+with suspicion of her innocent intention, because in 1915 he had seen
+her frequently in the society of German officers in the Hotel Victoria
+in Amsterdam.
+
+However, the authorities in Amsterdam wanted their powerful spy back in
+Paris, where she had to make the fullest use of her wiles in obtaining
+information on the production of tanks as a weapon of war. The
+accommodating von Kroon may or may not have been reluctant to part with
+an intelligent collaborator and a charming companion. Their friendship
+had ripened now to affection, for they occupied adjoining rooms at the
+Ritz Hotel. The young naval officer had given her tangible tokens of
+this affection in the form of jewellery, but when the time came for her
+departure Mata Hari became a practical woman of affairs (she was known
+among the German agents in Spain as “The Business Man”) and returned the
+jewels to her lover with the request that he convert them into cash. Von
+Kroon either could not or would not finance her from his private purse.
+Mata Hari wanted more convenient payment for her favours and her
+labours. Either at her suggestion or upon his own initiative the naval
+_attaché_ sent a message to Amsterdam, which was headquarters of the
+spy’s section, requesting the dispatch of 15,000 marks (about $3,000)
+for her use. This satisfied both parties.
+
+There was no real indiscretion in the dispatch of this message.
+Everything possible was done to make its transmission safe. When distant
+Legations desired to communicate with each other speedily they made use
+of radio, but since all these messages could be picked from the air by
+an enemy receiving station, von Kroon put this particular message into
+his private diplomatic cipher, so that it would be unintelligible to any
+listener unprovided with the key to his code. In addition, since the
+utmost secrecy is maintained even in intra-departmental correspondence
+in the Intelligence service, the wording was chosen with special care to
+be baffling to anyone who was not familiar with their methods. Von Kroon
+simply asked that money be sent to the spy H21 through the usual
+channels.
+
+Seemingly no blame is attached to him for the outcome of his commonplace
+demand. Yet, when he put his name to that radio message he had signed
+Mata Hari’s death warrant.
+
+
+
+
+                           _Chapter Thirteen_
+
+
+There are some points in Mata Hari’s experiences as a spy where one has
+to pause in utter bewilderment until the presentation of all the related
+facts clarifies the situation. This return to Paris is one of the most
+perplexing incidents of her career. There is much about her conduct
+after the deportation from England which puzzled those whose duty it was
+to watch her and which suggests that there was some other motive than
+the necessity for information which inspired the German secret service
+to drive her back to Paris.
+
+Von Kroon cannot have been ignorant of her danger; he must have known
+that an agent entrusted with a secret mission such as Mata Hari had
+confided to her by the French, and, failing to accomplish it, ought
+naturally to report failure at the earliest possible moment. Mata Hari
+neglected to report either to the French representatives at Madrid or
+directly to the Second Bureau, as she could so easily have done. Instead
+of approaching him officially, she tried to cultivate a casual
+acquaintance in a hotel with the French military _attaché_, who could
+have obtained her admission to France without delay or interference.
+This neglect is incomprehensible if Mata Hari ever seriously entertained
+the idea of returning to Paris. Indeed, there is good ground for
+supposing that when she volunteered to join the French secret service it
+was because she was aware that their agents were observing her and that
+she hoped to escape from France by accepting some mission which would
+obtain for her a safe conduct out of the country. While in England she
+was still in danger of arrest, but in Spain she secured the safe refuge
+of a neutral country.
+
+It is believed, therefore, that when Mata Hari dispatched her precious
+list of supposed spies in Belgium to headquarters in Amsterdam she
+considered her duty discharged and the matter closed at the time when
+she was safely out of the clutches of the Second Bureau. Her conduct in
+Spain supports this view. There was no attempt to report the failure of
+her confidential mission or to establish herself in official eyes.
+Instead, she openly accepted the head of the German secret service as
+her lover and accepted assignments to confidential duties which were
+partially known to the Dutch consul when he diplomatically recommended
+her not to attempt to re-enter Paris. Her employment was so generally
+known that it is incomprehensible her employers were not aware of its
+widespread acceptance. They had sufficient experience of the Allied
+secret services to know that they were not so stupid as to have
+overlooked what was obvious to others with less reason for suspicion.
+Why, then, in face of these ominous signs, did Mata Hari persist in
+making the attempt? But above all, why did the German officials permit
+her to assume the risk of returning to Paris?
+
+Several of her more ardent admirers turn to this crucial point in Mata
+Hari’s life and point to it as conclusive proof that she was innocent of
+any treacherous act against France. They contend that the absolute lack
+of precaution other than having her passports in order demonstrates that
+she had nothing to fear. No one has reproached Mata Hari with being a
+fool, yet this return to Paris in face of the alleged betrayal would
+indicate that she had taken leave of the common sense that they knew she
+possessed. Such an inconceivably stupid action is not in accordance with
+their knowledge of the dancer and the divine Brahma.
+
+Several reasons have been advanced to explain this incautious behaviour.
+It has been said that Mata Hari had developed a great contempt for the
+Second Bureau in the growth of her self-confidence and the increase of
+her vanity after so long deceiving them. It has been asserted that she
+was assured in Madrid by German agents that there was no suspicion in
+Paris of her occupation. But this is an absurdity in face of her neglect
+to communicate her failure to accomplish the mission she had been sent
+to perform, although some secret agents hold that France had no means of
+checking whether she had reached the agents in Belgium or not. They had
+this means, that they had asked the London police to ensure that she did
+not fulfil her mission, and the English service had carried out the
+request.
+
+The real truth is that Mata Hari did not wish to return to Paris. She
+knew the attendant danger. But she was ordered to go and go she must, or
+pay the penalty for refusing to obey orders. She struggled ineffectively
+to secure a permanent place on von Kroon’s staff until she could make
+her way to Holland, but German secret-service orders admit of no denial.
+There are too many terrible examples of the calamities which inevitably
+followed a refusal to obey orders to induce any agent to persist in a
+stubborn attitude. At the time of their engagement every spy is given
+clearly to understand that implicit obedience is demanded and, if it is
+not forthcoming, there is no mercy to be expected. When the traitor
+Estève volunteered at Barcelona for service he was given a mission to
+France that he knew exposed him to certain, or almost certain death, but
+his objections were frankly opposed by the threat that unless he made
+the attempt he would be handed over to the French authorities as a
+deserter and a traitor.
+
+Had Mata Hari not been instructed in the danger of her refusal to carry
+out her orders, she had, nevertheless, the example of vengeance executed
+upon a close personal friend whose death has already been alluded to in
+this history, Marussia Destrelles. In order to appreciate how Mata Hari
+overcame her reluctance to return to Paris one only requires to know how
+the German secret service carried out its vengeance when necessary.
+
+Marussia Destrelles had resided in Paris for some years, passing as a
+Polish widow among those whom she met. She had a certain blond beauty to
+make her attractive to the eye, and this, together with an alluring
+personality, soon gained her many friends in the theatrical profession
+among whom she worked. Marussia did not take her stage career
+over-seriously, nor did she devote all her time to it. In addition to
+French she spoke English, Russian, Polish, German, and Italian. Her
+Polish origin was probably genuine, for she spoke French with the accent
+peculiar to that people, but there was little to be learned of her
+antecedents, and, unlike Mata Hari, she did not invent a fanciful
+origin, but spoke only vaguely of her family.
+
+It is a singular thing that one may speak Persian, Pushtu, Chinese, or
+any other difficult language without incurring the reputation of being
+anything worse than a genial idiot, but to confess to a knowledge of
+Russian is almost equivalent to admitting employment in the secret
+services. Everyone suspects you. It was so with Marussia. Her gift of
+tongues seems to have predestined her for a spy’s life, and before the
+war she was known to have established relations with a spy, the manager
+of a theatrical troupe with whom she occasionally played. This man
+claimed to be a Rumanian. At the outbreak of war only his precipitate
+flight to Switzerland saved him from arrest as a dangerous person, for
+both he and his brother were known agents of Germany. The brother
+continued his espionage work in Switzerland, with such open contempt for
+Swiss hospitality that the federal authorities were insulted by his
+effrontery and had him arrested and sentenced to some months in prison.
+
+While her friend was in Switzerland, Marussia had to carry on their work
+in Paris, making one visit to Geneva to deliver her reports and to
+receive instructions. The experience at the frontier convinced her that
+it was inexpedient to leave France again unless she had an excellent
+excuse for return. Before long, however, it was necessary to make
+another journey to “see her lover,” who was now in Lausanne, waiting for
+the reports she was to deliver him, and to receive fresh instructions
+for the agents who worked for him. She sought a suitable excuse to
+facilitate her return from Swiss territory, for, being Polish, she had
+to suffer the close examination of her motives in coming into France.
+
+One morning she called up an acquaintance on the telephone.
+
+“This is Marussia speaking,” she said.
+
+“Marussia?” came the dubious reply.
+
+“Yes. Do you not remember me?”
+
+“Oh yes, perfectly,” answered the man, who was still very vague about
+her identity, for they had met only recently and were on such slight
+terms of acquaintance that the use of her first name puzzled him.
+
+“I am sorry to disturb you, my friend, but I am in need of some small
+service which I believe you will be ready and willing to perform for me.
+It is a matter I do not care to speak of on the telephone, but if you
+will call here, Boulevard Saint-Germain, I will explain it to you.”
+
+The gentleman thus summoned chanced to be a journalist who contributed
+those entertaining paragraphs of gossip from the boulevards, the cafés,
+and the clubs which make the Paris weekly journals such spicy and
+maliciously funny reading, and, scenting a possible paragraph of
+scandalous gossip, he promptly relinquished his intention of passing a
+morning of tranquil ease in order to wait upon the lady’s pleasure. On
+the way to the Boulevard Saint-Germain he speculated upon his selection
+for the confidence of Marussia, finally deciding that it could hardly
+entail any sacrifice unless the lady was presuming upon their slight
+acquaintance, in which case he could extricate himself from the
+situation by some journalistic excuse.
+
+Arrived at the house, he went up to the fourth floor, where he was
+graciously received and generally treated as a tried and trusted
+confidant. Marussia did not waste time in approaching the object of the
+visit. She candidly explained that, having on a previous occasion
+experienced difficulty in returning to France after an absence, she
+wished to simplify her return from a projected visit to Switzerland. All
+would be well if monsieur would be good enough to send her a telegram on
+a certain day saying that his play was about to be produced, but that
+its presentation was being delayed until she, who was cast in the
+principal part, could be present in Paris.
+
+Monsieur, without stopping to think, said that he would be enchanted to
+be of service to madame and then went into the gardens of the Tuileries
+to meditate upon his rash promise. It required several cigarettes to
+assist him in exhausting all the possible reasons why he, who had never
+written a play, should have to pretend to have need of the
+_comédienne’s_ services. He admitted that he would not have been so
+suspicious of an evil intent had it not been that Marussia spoke Russian
+and because of a curious incident which had befallen him just as he was
+leaving her apartment. When Marussia’s manservant was ushering the
+visitor out of the apartment at the conclusion of his call the man had
+whispered confidentially into his ear:
+
+“If you meet, on the stairs, a coalman or a grocer’s messenger who
+stares hard at you, don’t mind. He will be one of our men.”
+
+These two pieces of knowledge seemed to fit mysteriously together in his
+suspicious mind. He decided to seek the counsel of the local police. At
+the nearest police office he found an official who listened
+sympathetically to the story, but who recommended him to visit district
+headquarters, where he was solemnly told to present his story to the
+central bureau, where he was finally advised to go to the devil. Finding
+that the civil police did not appear to be unduly alarmed, but himself
+convinced that a woman who spoke Russian and fathered him with unwritten
+plays could intend no good, he confided the strange occurrence to
+friends. By good fortune one of his hearers had just had an unpleasant
+adventure with the Second Bureau which had turned out satisfactorily in
+the end. He, too, was a journalist, who had fallen under suspicion of
+implication in the German newspaper conspiracy, and in order to test his
+loyalty Mlle. Mistinguette had been instructed to approach him with a
+suggestion which would put his loyalty to severe test. The clever
+_comédienne_ whispered to him that she was receiving handsome
+remuneration for her work on behalf of the enemy and that if he wished
+to add to his income, an introduction to the German secret service could
+be arranged for his benefit. This good Frenchman was horrified both at
+his suspected loyalty and at the supposed perfidy of his charming
+friend. Not only did he scornfully reject her offer, but he set himself
+to persuade Mistinguette to abandon the dangerous and treacherous work
+she professed to be performing. Through his obvious sincerity the man
+had obtained the friendship of some of the very officials who had
+doubted him before.
+
+He, therefore, strongly recommended Marussia’s friend to accompany him
+to the offices of the Second Bureau, where he was assured of a
+sympathetic hearing and the certainty of action if the suspicions had
+any foundation. The writer of the imaginary play was not surprised to
+find that his equally imaginary principal player was quite well known to
+the Second Bureau, but not so well known as they wished. Their knowledge
+was that she was in many ways an undesirable alien and one to be
+encouraged if she expressed any desire to leave the country. Her friend
+was, therefore, instructed not to retract his promise to telegraph for
+her, but not on any account to send the telegram at the appointed date,
+lest it deceive some unsuspecting police agent charged with the control
+of incoming aliens. The French representatives in Switzerland were then
+warned not to allow a _laissez-passer_ to be issued to Marussia should
+she request one.
+
+From the time of her arrival in Lausanne the French authorities kept her
+under strict supervision, a proceeding which induced Marussia to believe
+that she had made a conquest of the local consul, who was enjoying his
+duties immensely. During her stay in this Swiss town the suspected spy
+mixed much with the kind of society which soon converted suspicion into
+moral conviction of her guilt, more especially as she was almost
+invariably accompanied by her Rumanian friend, who was known to be a
+German agent. Then came the time when her return to Paris was due. No
+telegram had been received recalling her to imaginary stage duties, so
+an appeal had to be made to the local consul. It was refused. But the
+amiable consul gave her some good advice which, if followed, gave her
+the hope that the refusal might be revoked. One of the conditions he
+sought to impose upon Marussia’s conduct was the immediate breach with
+her associates of the German service and the serving of a probationary
+period of good behaviour. Marussia indignantly rejected the proposal.
+But, since she had been entrusted with a confidential mission in France,
+the requisite papers granting her authority to enter the country had to
+be obtained somehow. She went to Geneva to try her fortune with an
+official who was not accustomed to seeing her in the company of her
+objectionable Rumanian friend and his associates. Marussia was again
+informed that she would not be permitted to return to France so long as
+she chose as companions men who were notoriously enemies of the French
+people.
+
+After this second rebuff it was obvious to Marussia that while in
+Switzerland she enjoyed the security afforded by a neutral country, in
+France she was exposed to the danger of immediate arrest, trial as an
+enemy agent, and possible execution. Still, it was her duty as a spy to
+return, even if papers were refused. The German service had a most
+accomplished forger operating at Berne, who could produce excellent
+papers of all sorts and descriptions that defied examination by the
+authorities, but it would be folly for Marussia to attempt to enter
+Paris with forged papers, since she was too well known. Besides, it was
+not only the consuls to whom she had applied for assistance who knew of
+her occupation, a full description of her appearance and the object of
+her mission would have been broadcast to all the police officials along
+the frontier, so that an attempt to penetrate the country would be
+attended with considerable danger. Therefore, Marussia carried her
+complaint of the risk she ran to Gruber, the head of German espionage in
+Switzerland, pointing out that an attempt to cross the frontier must be
+accompanied with the certain prospect of disaster.
+
+That is not the language of spies. No secret-service agent can afford to
+cherish the luxury of flight from possible capture when his duty
+requires that he remain at his post. Men who carry their freedom, and
+often their lives, in their hands every hour of the day would not be
+able to appreciate Marussia’s motives. Crossing the frontier is a
+business which invariably exposes the spy to considerable danger, even
+when his papers are in order, why, then, should she begin to have qualms
+at this stage? Recognition? Good Lord! was there ever a spy who did not
+risk recognition? It was part of spies’ routine to avoid it, they were
+specially trained to dodge it, and if recognized by accident then it was
+their business to throw the pursuers off the scent. But to decline to
+execute orders because it was known that she was a spy—that was
+incredible.
+
+Still Marussia refused to budge. She protested so volubly that the
+French got to hear of her predicament and, scenting the possibility of a
+confession and much useful information, they began to sympathize with
+Marussia. A reliable agent was detailed to offer protection against this
+new form of persecution by her employers. The French agent tried in
+every way to gain her confidence and, if possible, to induce her to
+betray her former associates. Unfortunately, the agent chosen for this
+work was known to the enemy agents. As soon as they found that Marussia
+was spending her time in the company of this man they became alarmed and
+appointed their own watchers to discover whether the woman was
+contemplating treachery, which was suspected from her protest against
+further employment in France.
+
+One night Marussia and her new French friend dined together at the
+former’s hotel. Shortly after the man had left, Marussia was invited to
+join a party of German agents who were making merry, in a neighbouring
+room, over a victory. They joyfully insisted that she share in the
+entertainment. What happened at that party has never been divulged,
+probably never will. All that is known is the tragic sequel, when on the
+next morning Marussia Destrelles was found, dressed in a pretty ball
+dress, lying dead among a pile of flowers heaped on her bed. Early that
+morning, before the official news of her death had been made public, the
+German agents were assiduously spreading the news that she had committed
+suicide because of a love-affair. This was contrary to the known facts.
+
+There was great commotion in Geneva when it was known that a well-known
+foreign actress had died suddenly, and the police were instructed to
+institute a close investigation into the circumstances of her death.
+Medical examination showed that death was due to poisoning, but since
+the murderers had entirely omitted to leave behind any accessories for
+suicide, the malicious reports of her companions were exploded. Search
+in the room where the entertainment had been given proved that one cup
+of coffee had been poisoned and that was the cup from which Marussia had
+drunk. The costume she wore on her bier was not that which she had worn
+on the previous night, and the doctors declared that Marussia could not
+have lived long enough to drink the coffee in another room, remain until
+the end of the entertainment where she was supposed to have quarrelled
+with a friend, and then proceed to change her costume and arrange for
+the display of flowers which adorned her bier. Convinced that they had
+to deal with an audacious band of murderers, the Swiss police began an
+active search for the slayers, when a mysterious message from Berne put
+an end to further enquiry. The whole matter was allowed to drop, as was
+so often the case when German agents were criminally involved. But among
+the German secret service in Switzerland the death of Marussia was long
+used to inspire terror in the hearts of agents who showed any
+inclination to independence. It became the classic example of the
+ruthless vengeance with which the service punished its servants when
+they required to be disciplined. It was also one of the favourite bogies
+used to frighten nervous agents into a spirit of reckless courage.
+
+In Mata Hari’s case the tragedy had a bitter significance, because the
+women had maintained a close friendship over a period of many years.
+Although it is not known whether they worked together in German
+interests, their lives followed a parallel course, with Mata Hari
+holding the superior position, both on and off the stage. There can be
+little doubt that when the Red Dancer received her instructions ordering
+her back to France the tragic end of her Polish companion was a grisly
+reminder of the fate which would inevitably pursue her if she persisted
+in refusal to obey. As a spy she was responsible for her own protection
+by whatever resources were at her command, but it was obvious that her
+superiors would tolerate no disobedience. Had she decided to remain in
+Spain contrary to orders, she had no friends who could be effective in
+protecting her against the murderous vengeance she was courting, whereas
+in Paris she had powerful friends whose self-interest might alone induce
+them to preserve her from the relentless fate which pursued her. The
+Second Bureau did not possess the atrocious reputation of its German
+equivalent service, and it was possible that she might invent a
+plausible story about the Belgian affair.
+
+“Perhaps, after all,” she may have thought, “I may be exaggerating my
+danger. Even if the French do suspect me, they can have no proof,
+because they cannot make use of my correspondence without risking a
+rupture of diplomatic relations with the neutral country whose
+confidential mail I have used. If by any chance they have discovered my
+secret channel of information, which is unlikely, the other diplomats
+will protect me personally by protesting against the pilfering of their
+mail. As for the absence of the papers I had to carry to Belgium, I will
+say that I destroyed them for safety.”
+
+If Mata Hari ever reviewed the case in this light she was not without
+justification for her reasoning. Actual betrayal could only come through
+some other channel. But even if the spy herself had willingly consented
+to undertake this mission the German authorities exhibited a painfully
+callous disregard for the safety of an agent who had served them with
+marked success.
+
+On the other hand, there is much to support the contention that Mata
+Hari was deliberately sent to her doom. The German authorities must have
+known perfectly well that Mata Hari had committed an indiscretion in
+sending the originals of her papers to Holland instead of sending
+duplicates or copies and retaining the originals in case she was asked
+to produce them at the last minute for alteration. There was bound to be
+the gravest doubt about her loyalty if these documents could not be
+produced. But this was not their greatest difficulty.
+
+After the time of the Chemin des Dames offensive every piece of
+information she sent them was either inaccurate or deceiving. The list
+of routes used by air pilots which she had sent was without result,
+since the French authorities had promptly changed the routes as soon as
+they learned that Mata Hari had revealed them; some information she had
+gathered from British officers relating to tanks was also found to be
+valueless because untrue, and the German service must have suspected the
+truth, that her informants were enemy agents aware of her purpose and
+willing to further it by supplying false information; there was the list
+of spies in Belgium, of whom only one could be identified—another trick.
+Finally, the British had shipped her to Spain instead of allowing her to
+proceed to Holland.
+
+What were the Germans to think?
+
+They had the choice of only two things. Either Mata Hari was
+deliberately deceiving them, or her employment was known to the enemy
+agents, who were using her for the bewilderment of her employers, in
+which case her value had passed and she had become a menace. But whether
+they forced Mata Hari to Paris against her will for the purpose of
+surrendering her to their enemies, or whether they had some other
+motive, the fact remains that they did not betray her. Which may or may
+not be further evidence of their stupidity. Nevertheless, the woman
+might be forgiven, but there is little excuse for officials who kept on
+sending the pitcher to the well after so many warnings that it had
+become too fragile for the work.
+
+
+
+
+                           _Chapter Fourteen_
+
+
+There was no attempt at secrecy when Mata Hari left Spain, nor again
+when she entered France. At the time of her departure from Madrid she
+was attended at the railroad station by the customary court of
+enthusiastic admirers, many of whom had a sincere admiration for her art
+as a dancer, although there was a vociferous group of Spanish friends
+and a sprinkling of German officers to kiss her hand whose admiration
+was based upon other personal qualities. In spite of the atmosphere of
+suspicion in which she moved no protest was raised against the Red
+Dancer when she crossed the Pyrenees, because the path had been smoothed
+by a complacent French consul to whom she applied for visas for her
+passport. To anyone less superbly self-confident the ease with which her
+papers were put in order must have raised visions of future trouble,
+because travel in those days was notoriously difficult on account of the
+rigid regulations in force.
+
+Since the Red Dancer’s public appearance at the vaudeville theatres in
+Paris had not been advertised, her arrival in the French capital was
+unheralded except for one friend. The demonstrative welcome she had
+grown to love and expect was absent. Apart from the watchful police
+agents warned of her coming, the only other person present to greet her
+was the one loyal attendant who had taken a short leave from the Foreign
+Office to renew their acquaintance. His love, which had already passed
+through many vicissitudes at the caprice of the _bayadère_, seems always
+to have been rekindled by her presence. At the station the police
+noticed that Mata Hari’s baggage was sent to the Hotel Plaza-Athénée,
+while the owner, taking only light luggage, took her place in the
+official’s private car, which sped away to his own residence.
+
+With that evidence it was felt that they could pick up the trail without
+difficulty, so the newly joined friends were not shadowed as the London
+police certainly would have shadowed them until Mata Hari would never
+have been allowed out of their sight. This neglect gave the Paris
+authorities a fright from which they might have saved themselves with a
+little more foresight. But when the officers of the Second Bureau
+thought that they would like to talk with her, the police were unable to
+find any trace of Mata Hari. For three days they scoured the city for
+some signs or news of the dancer and her companion. At the Hotel
+Plaza-Athénée nothing could be learned but that they were expecting the
+arrival of Mata Hari at any time; her luggage had arrived and doubtless
+the lady was closely following it. At the Foreign Office it was learned
+that the director was having a few days’ leave, the time was
+indeterminate, after so many months of arduous labour. But it was known
+he had not left the city, because he had been in telephonic
+communication with the Office.
+
+But not a trace of Mata Hari could be found, and as her absence grew
+hourly longer the anxiety increased. This sudden disappearance
+bewildered everyone. The officers of the Second Bureau were beginning to
+suspect that she had embarked upon some other mission, such as that at
+Vittel, which required her presence in an obscure town, and that she
+might be stirring another witches’ brew for their consumption. Their
+dilemma was the greater because it was known that money for her work was
+awaiting her at the neutral Legation, and it was not like her to neglect
+collecting it. When at last they did find her, driving unconcernedly to
+the hotel, the mystery had grown so profound that it was judged
+advisable to delay action for a few more days in order to ascertain what
+new mischief was brewing. The Second Bureau were not omniscient, they
+did not know what was the nature of her immediate work in Paris,
+because, like everyone else, they wondered at her temerity in venturing
+to reappear in the scenes of her most daring exploits in face of added
+danger. It was decided, therefore, to take a leaf from the book of their
+English colleagues and give the spy a little extra freedom before
+expressing their curiosity in the discharge of her Belgian mission.
+
+There was the grave fear that during her absence from observation in
+company of a man who was in the confidence of the Cabinet, she might
+have used their intimacy to learn matters of national policy which, if
+communicated to the German authorities, would cause irreparable injury
+to the French nation. It was impossible to conceive the extent of the
+damage that might be done to the Allied cause through the indiscretions
+of a highly placed official during a few moments of unguarded
+confidence. It was already believed that through information acquired in
+this way, Mata Hari had been able to warn the Germans of the British
+determination to resume the offensive in the spring of 1917 and the
+French reluctance to undertake any active measures at that time,
+information which resulted in the withdrawal on the Somme to more easily
+defended positions opposite the British, but the retention of every inch
+of ground in face of the French.
+
+However, her equally sudden reappearance in public and the casual
+resumption of her normal existence restored their confidence in being
+able to discover her aims. A spy working under observation is a very
+different matter from one working unseen, and presents only a fraction
+of the potential danger of one whose object is not even conjectural and
+whose methods are a matter of speculation. She did find a few spare
+moments to visit the Legation to collect 15,000 marks that were sent
+from Amsterdam for her reward, but she had nothing to report to her
+headquarters, which was a matter of considerable relief, since it proved
+that during those few days in which Mata Hari had eluded the police she
+had acquired no knowledge that was worth sending.
+
+Then followed a period of wild pleasures of the old kind. Thanks to the
+renewal of favour of her diplomatic friend, her public luncheons and
+dinners assumed a decidedly diplomatic flavour. Grave and dignified
+representatives of various countries who did not find the task of
+maintaining the neutrality of their countries to be very onerous,
+struggled for her notice, and if they were rewarded by a glance from
+Mata Hari’s sombre eyes they felt the day was not wholly wasted, while
+if she awarded them any signal mark of favour they left her presence as
+well satisfied as if they had negotiated an advantageous treaty for
+their country. At one such luncheon given by an ambassador, an observant
+journalist, who had his own reasons for keeping a close watch on the
+spy, noticed her amazing power over these men. So complete was her
+mastery of the situation that this man observed with astonishment that
+during the course of only a few minutes she changed the truth to suit
+her own requirements without having any of her false or conflicting
+statements challenged by her infatuated admirers.
+
+But while rejoicing in the possession of so many amiable and generous
+friends Mata Hari was not neglecting her old friends, the officers on
+leave. Almost every night when she had completed her social duties she
+would start out on a tour of the night haunts until she had found some
+semi-intoxicated man who, by a little judicious entertainment of her own
+devising, could be persuaded to become loquacious in his cups. From one
+such garrulous gentleman, whose art on the stage was recognized as
+reaching its highest when playing the part of drunken men, she tried to
+find out what improvements were being made in the tanks and whether
+their tactical handling had undergone any improvement. But this was a
+fruitless search to undertake in France. The secrets of the newer
+developments in the tanks were being kept too closely guarded to be
+available to men in France, and the methods of handling them changed
+with every action in which they took part. But with this knowledge of
+her object in their possession, the officers of the Second Bureau felt
+that they now might call their own spy to account for an explanation of
+her neglect to report on her mission to Belgium.
+
+The civil police officer charged with the delicate task of approaching
+Mata Hari was instructed that he must on no account cause her any
+fright. This officer, a Monsieur Triolet, was an experienced and tactful
+official, fully conversant with the spy’s career and character, and not
+unfamiliar with the desperate remedies employed by hysterical
+law-breakers to improve a bad situation. He knew that Mata Hari was a
+sufferer from what is now euphemistically called “artistic temperament,”
+but which in those days was known as outraged vanity expressing itself
+through plain bad temper, and that at the least sign of contrariness to
+her wishes there had been scenes of blind rage in which the angry dancer
+seemed capable of any folly. It was not improbable that a woman with
+such a violent temper might try to inflict bodily injury on herself or
+the police commissioners if she suspected any harm as the outcome of
+this visit. They had evidence of her self-cultivated reputation for
+bloodlust, illustrated by her boast that she had strangled the slayer of
+her son Norman and had killed with her own hand the favourite pony,
+rather than allow him to be ridden by a stranger. Such a desperate
+character as she pretended to be called for special treatment. The most
+real danger was that if she suspected the police intended to effect her
+arrest, she might be tempted to destroy any incriminating documents that
+were in her possession, that is if she felt guilty enough to entertain
+such suspicion.
+
+All things considered, M. Triolet decided strategy was required. It was
+imperative that, once he had gained admission to the house, Mata Hari
+must never leave his sight for a moment. Filled with this good
+intention, the police commissioner and a subordinate persuaded the hotel
+staff to facilitate their admission to her suite. The first sight they
+got of their quarry dispelled any fear of concealed weapons. It also
+dissipated their strategic intention, for as they walked into the room
+they were received by the dancer, reclining at her ease on a couch in
+her favourite costume, or lack of it. The embarrassed M. Triolet and his
+companion had not counted on finding her devoid of all clothing—it
+destroyed the scheme they had developed of persuading her to accompany
+them promptly to the offices of the Second Bureau. But fortunately, Mata
+Hari preserved her composure.
+
+Quite unconcernedly she asked, “To what do I owe the honour of this
+visit, monsieur?”
+
+The dumbfounded officers floundered hopelessly through some muttered
+apology for intruding on her privacy, but somehow managed to convey the
+impression that they had been sent to invite Mata Hari to visit the
+Bureau. Unless she had some convincing story ready, the prospect was
+alarming; but the dancer had that unwavering self-assurance which some
+women derive from the knowledge that they are beautiful, and she scorned
+to display any outward sign of fear. M. Triolet recalls how she rose to
+survey her pensive beauty in a long glass while she nonchalantly
+speculated upon the possible reasons for the desire to interview her. A
+little less self-confidence might have allowed her the chance of escape
+had she wanted to avoid the meeting, because the embarrassment of the
+two officials was so great that their modesty would have allowed her the
+privilege of leaving their presence to put on some clothes. But she
+seemed to have no doubt of her impregnable position and gave the
+impression of being genuinely anxious to find a valid reason for the
+proposed visit.
+
+At last she found a possible excuse.
+
+“Perhaps it is about my journey to Belgium that the officers wish to see
+me,” she suggested hopefully.
+
+“Precisely, madame,” agreed the police commissioner, not knowing what
+she was talking about, but hastily grasping at any straw that would
+rescue him from his dilemma. “It must be that, because, now that you
+mention it, I did hear an allusion to a journey to Belgium, only I did
+not associate it with you.”
+
+“Oh yes, I had intended to go.”
+
+“What, a lady to go alone among the _Boches_?”
+
+“Yes, monsieur,” she modestly replied. “I was going, and alone. Not for
+myself, but for France, the France that I love so well because it has
+been so good to me. But you will understand, you must have had
+experience of the stupid police in London, how they could bungle a
+delicate mission. Can you imagine that those clumsy men, who were
+ordered to put me on a boat which would take me to Amsterdam, actually
+put me on one going to Cadiz? They are not so gallant as the Paris
+police, and they certainly are not so intelligent. Imagine my
+predicament to arrive in Cadiz, where I was without friends or the means
+of reaching those who could aid me. Ah, those English police, they are
+sad bunglers.”
+
+It would have been more gallant for these two officers to have left Mata
+Hari to complete her toilette unobserved, but now that her unconcern had
+removed their embarrassment and the little party was on the friendliest
+footing, they returned to their resolution to watch any movement in
+order to guard against treachery. There was the danger that this
+attitude of indifference was an attempt to gain their confidence for the
+purpose of benefiting by it in some way. They decided against taking any
+chances. This situation was acceptable to Mata Hari. Thus the two police
+commissioners hovered anxiously over her toilette with the concern of
+wardrobe masters, doing their clumsy best to repair the absence of
+maids, while she prattled gaily of her misadventures. The police agent
+declares that she rather enjoyed the situation and the opportunity it
+offered of making favourable comparisons between the Paris and London
+police.
+
+The amazing woman was so much the victim of her own self-confidence to
+control any situation in which she found herself, that she displayed no
+worry about the waiting interview which might have very inconvenient
+consequences. Having dressed with care, for she had now several
+acquaintances among the officers of the Second Bureau upon whom she
+wished to exercise her charms, she announced her readiness to accompany
+the two officers, who informed her that an official car was waiting.
+
+The Second Bureau wanted to see Mata Hari for two reasons. One was that
+they were curious to have her explanation of the Belgian fiasco; the
+other was in relation to a radio message concerning the spy.
+
+Both the airplane and the radio reached an advanced stage of development
+when they became adjuncts of war, but while full honours have been
+rendered the more spectacular weapon, no one has yet done justice to the
+romantic possibilities of radio’s accomplishment. All we are concerned
+with here is its application in secret-service work and to Mata Hari in
+particular. Many American readers will recall the use made of the
+German-owned and controlled station at Sayville, on Long Island, which
+served for some time as the clearing-house for messages for both
+contestants. Less well known is the story of the telegraphic message
+which did so much to influence President Wilson in his determination to
+take an active part in the war.
+
+In January, 1917, Herr Arthur Zimmermann, the German Secretary of State,
+addressed a message to the ambassador in Mexico, von Eckhardt, urging
+him to invite Mexico to enter into an alliance with Germany and to sound
+Japan upon the same project. As an inducement to produce the armed
+activity of Mexico against the United States, the German Minister
+suggested that the states of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona should be
+her reward. By one of those curious lapses which are so unaccountable,
+this message was sent over cables that were known to be in possession of
+the British, but so absolute was their confidence in their ability to
+outwit the enemy that the German officials merely had the message
+transferred into their ordinary code, a code which the head of the
+secret service had previously warned them was wholly antiquated and no
+longer proof against interpretation. Unhappily for them, this code was
+known to the British.
+
+As soon as the text was known it was submitted to Walter H. Page, then
+ambassador to the Court of Saint James’s, who promptly sent it to
+President Wilson, at that time hovering on the brink of declaring war,
+but hoping against hope to maintain neutrality. With this effort to
+provoke trouble in his hands, American intervention was only a matter of
+time.
+
+To finish with this story it is necessary to add that the British had to
+conceal from their enemy how this piece of information had come into the
+possession of the President. It became necessary to fabricate a story
+while the American authorities were endeavouring to prove the
+authenticity of the document. Acting upon information supplied by Mr.
+Page, United States agents “listened in” in Mexico City for the message
+(which had been purposely delayed in transmission), and when it was
+known that they had intercepted it, certain London papers that were
+known to be in demand in Germany, launched an attack on Sir Reginald
+Hall for allowing American agents to discover such invaluable
+information and for permitting it to escape the notice of the British
+Intelligence service. This rebuke, which was as severe as the censorship
+might allow, did not disturb Hall. He had written it himself.
+
+Every combatant nation maintained its stations for the transmission and
+reception of messages and it soon became a desperate game to pick up one
+another’s messages and to make what sense was possible from the
+information so collected. What each country wished to have accepted
+generally as its view of the situation was broadcast in plain language,
+so that its message was carried to the waiting world; but confidential
+matter which had to be conveyed to distant agents required great
+precaution so that none of the meaning should be apparent to enemies.
+Thus codes and ciphers were used. As we have seen, these were not always
+successful in maintaining secrecy. During the early stages of the war
+the British naval code was known to the German representatives in
+Washington and, by intercepting coded messages, they were able to inform
+their own naval units in southern seas of the favourable advantage in
+guns and position they possessed over a weak English squadron, which
+resulted in the latter being overtaken and defeated at the Coronel.
+Naturally the code was changed in its entirety after this and the
+possession of the German code enabled the British to turn the tables on
+their enemy in precisely the same manner at the battle of Falkland
+Islands.
+
+Codes and ciphers have their dangers. There was an everlasting battle of
+wits between secret-service agents to obtain possession of these
+precious documents, and the war had not long been in progress when it
+was the proud boast of these services that each possessed a department
+which could unravel the most complicated message, if only they were
+given time. Stations like the Eiffel Tower would pick up the code
+messages cast into the air and promptly transmit them to decoding
+officers, who did their best (or worst) to find out what the messages
+contained. At times the results were startling.
+
+The Eiffel Tower betrayed the work of more than one spy. There was, for
+instance, the brilliant young noncommissioned officer, Debrabant, who
+found life in the Intelligence department’s offices too sedentary after
+service at the front. He pressed for more congenial employment where his
+taste for adventure might be gratified, and was sent to Barcelona to
+watch the operation of the German secret service there under Baron von
+Rolland. In that city he fell in love with a rich Andalusian widow, but,
+being a youth of spirit, he required to have money enough to keep him
+independent of her bounty. He was struck with the bright idea of selling
+his knowledge of the Intelligence work of the French, which he had
+gained at headquarters, to their enemies. This information was sent to
+Madrid and later radioed to Antwerp for necessary action. It was too
+late to prevent the death of thirteen agents which resulted from the
+betrayal, but the French were able to read these messages because they
+had become possessed of the key to the code which was used. Debrabant
+died a traitor’s death in 1919.
+
+It will be recalled that when Mata Hari was in Madrid she asked von
+Kroon to secure some money for her from her headquarters in Amsterdam
+for use in Paris. The naval _attaché_ must have known that this message
+broadcast across France would be picked up at some stage of its journey,
+so he carefully coded the message to make it unintelligible to anyone
+who did not have the key. Unhappily for Mata Hari, the French did have
+the key.
+
+It is not suggested that the rape of the code book was the result of any
+indiscretion on the part of Mata Hari’s friend. The fault must be laid
+to one of his colleagues, and it makes an interesting story.
+
+The French consul in San Sebastián earned the reputation of being the
+most enthusiastic user of photography during the war. Knowing that the
+German propaganda in neutral countries was directed from that town, he
+was determined to utilize the enemy’s envoys as decoys to betray their
+agents. To further this purpose he conceived the idea of photographing
+all the visitors to their headquarters, and so he installed a
+photographic apparatus in the house immediately opposite that where the
+Germans worked. By this means he was able to furnish pictures of all the
+agents calling for instructions to the various branches of the
+counter-espionage service. The photographer, a very skilled young woman,
+was called into consultation by a man who had set himself the task of
+securing the German code books.
+
+Had he simply stolen the book his work would have been greatly
+simplified, but its absence would have been immediately discovered and a
+new code substituted, thus defeating his purpose. In order to make a job
+of it he had to conduct the affair in such a way that the Germans would
+never suspect the book had been out of their possession. The task was
+more or less simplified by the use of standardized portfolios by the
+staff of the Embassy. One day an official had cause to pack the code
+book and some papers into one of these portfolios, which he proposed to
+take with him to his rooms to complete work after his office hours. On
+the way he met a friend who suggested that he accompany her to the house
+of mutual acquaintances, well known to the diplomat as favouring the
+Central Powers, who had been expecting a visit from him. Since there was
+ample time to finish his work after the call, the German envoy agreed to
+the suggestion and a near-by taxi was called. In accordance with his
+usual custom the diplomat, a man of considerable charm and popularity in
+Madrid, halted the taxi at a shop where he might buy some flowers to be
+presented as a peace offering to his hostess after his long absence.
+
+The social call was without incident. Only, later in the evening when
+the diplomat was free to commence the work he had brought to his rooms
+he made the annoying discovery that the portfolio he had carried from
+the office was not the one which contained the papers he needed. Hastily
+telephoning the secretary on duty at the Embassy, he was told that his
+own portfolio was lying just where he had left it in his office.
+Naturally concluding that he had picked up the wrong portfolio, the
+diplomat made an exchange which enabled him to complete his work without
+any suspicion that the precious papers had ever been out of the
+possession of the Embassy staff, while, as a matter of fact, they had
+been photographed page by page during the interval of his entering the
+flower shop and the time the portfolio was discovered lying in his
+office.
+
+How was it done? A minor official in the Embassy had been coaxed,
+bribed, or bullyragged into lending an Embassy portfolio stuffed with
+harmless routine documents to an audacious French agent who carried it
+for days on the seat of the taxi he was driving. He and his
+collaborator, the lady, had to wait patiently before they encountered
+the diplomat under quite the right conditions. At last the fates were
+kind in arranging the circumstances as they were required for the
+execution of the plan, with the one exception that the diplomat carried
+a leather case that contained only a few papers, whereas the portfolio
+to replace it was stuffed with them. There was barely time to reduce the
+bulging portfolio to satisfactory dimensions while the diplomat was
+buying flowers, and the taxi-driver was compelled to finish his journey
+sitting on a wad of loose papers which might easily have betrayed him.
+Having dropped his two passengers, the driver hurried back to within
+sight of the Embassy where the papers were all photographed before being
+returned (we do not know how) to the diplomat’s office. It was intended,
+had the attempt proved a failure, to repeat it until the code book was
+found.
+
+This was a very risky business, as too much was left to the fortuitous
+arrangement of circumstances, a great contrast to the classic example of
+“bag-snatching” carried out by the American agent, Houghton, in New
+York. Here the agent sat behind Dr. Albert, the commercial _attaché_ at
+Washington, in the Subway, and relieved him of his portfolio and papers
+at the Fiftieth Street station. The same day the papers, which included
+the code books, were handed over to the New York police as having been
+“found” in the car. The papers were hastily photographed as soon as the
+owner was known!
+
+When the Eiffel Tower picked up von Kroon’s message, the decoding
+officers had their work very much simplified, and were able to inform
+the Second Bureau that the naval _attaché_ in Madrid had requested the
+Amsterdam headquarters to furnish H21 with funds for her work in Paris,
+the money to be sent through the usual channels.
+
+This telegram picked out of the air was the first piece of genuine
+orthodox evidence the Second Bureau had been able to collect against
+Mata Hari, and it was because of it that they wished to interview her.
+
+When Police Commissioner Triolet arrived at the offices of the Second
+Bureau he heaved a sigh of relief at having successfully accomplished a
+delicate task. For some reason the police had a strong suspicion that
+Mata Hari meant mischief against herself in case of discovery, and it
+was because of this that they were so anxious to have her alive and
+well, for spies differ to this extent from Indians, the good ones
+live—and talk to their captors. Arrived at the Bureau, the police
+officer handed Mata Hari a folded paper of ominously legal aspect. It
+was the warrant for her arrest as a spy.
+
+She never even glanced at it.
+
+In the room to which she had been conducted were several officers, and
+thinking, from her experience of previous visits to the place, that the
+paper was merely authority to secure her admission to those closely
+guarded rooms, she asked the police officer:
+
+“To which of these officers should I present this document?”
+
+Anxious to return to aid in the fruitless search of her rooms, already
+begun at the moment of her departure, M. Triolet indicated the officer
+charged with the interrogation. Mata Hari approached him without
+hesitation and laid the warrant under his eyes. The surprised Captain
+Ledoux was not prepared for such amazing composure, so that he looked at
+the paper curiously, expecting something quite different. However, when
+he saw what it was he gravely motioned her to a seat, drew toward him a
+pad for making notes, and, preparing to write, said to her:
+
+“Tell me how long you have been in the German secret service.”
+
+The shock of the unexpected blow stunned her. For a moment she rocked
+unsteadily in the chair and her face went livid. It was no longer the
+assured, audacious Mata Hari who looked with terrified eyes at the
+officer and whimpered:
+
+“I ... I do not understand.”
+
+“Tell me, H21, when you first became a spy in the enemy’s pay.”
+
+With those words Mata Hari must have known that the career of the Red
+Dancer had drawn to its close. Now, nothing remained except the spy H21.
+
+That night the woman who had loved luxury as the Sybarite who complained
+that he could not sleep because of a fold in a rose-leaf on his couch,
+tossed feverishly on the hard bed in a cell of the prison of
+Saint-Lazare.
+
+
+
+
+                           _Chapter Fifteen_
+
+
+The time had now come when Mata Hari had to answer for her crime before
+her judges, brother officers of the men whom she had sent to their
+deaths in hundreds; her soul and mind is to be revealed with the same
+degree of thoroughness as she had so frequently chosen to unveil her
+beautiful body, which had become famous in all the European capitals. It
+was inevitable that her reputation should have preceded her to the bar
+of justice, for some of her judges, at least, must have known her as a
+“star” of the vaudeville stage, a woman who had led the gay roistering
+life of an artist without respect for honour, modesty, or decency. They
+must have experienced in some degree the magnetic charm which had
+enslaved other men and have wondered by what extraordinary twist of
+fortune’s wheel she had been induced to accept employment as a spy. Yet
+the shades of thought that interest moralists in laying bare the motives
+of a mind received no consideration by the Third Court-Martial. They
+were concerned with facts, and facts are stubborn things.
+
+Herein lies one of the main complaints of those who seek to palliate her
+offence. One of her most passionate defenders, Señor Gomez Carrillo, in
+his _Le mystère de la vie et de la mort de Mata Hari_, has candidly
+admitted that he believes her to have been guilty of the charge of
+espionage and intelligence with the enemy, but in contesting every point
+which indicates her guilt he submits an impassioned plea for her point
+of view as a neurotic and perverted debauchée, as though that were an
+adequate defence for the crime of betraying innocent men to their
+deaths. Almost simultaneously come the more subtle efforts of the German
+sympathizers to canonize her as a martyr to their cause. The German
+authorities have every reason to feel grateful to Mata Hari for her
+devotion to duty. When a spy’s life is judged entirely by the measure of
+achievement, then Mata Hari is fully entitled to a high reputation in
+her profession. It is when her life is compared with others’ whose hands
+are not blood-stained and who are innocent of treachery that one must
+enter a protest against the attribution of qualities to a spy’s duties
+which not only fail to rehabilitate Mata Hari, but which lead to a
+complete misconception of the work she performed.
+
+In order to cultivate a sympathetic public for their accomplished spy,
+the Germans have compared Mata Hari to one of the victims of their
+wrath, Miss Edith Cavell. There can be no comparison, only contrast.
+Mata Hari was accused of spying, with having caused the deaths of many
+men. Competent French authorities declare the losses which can be
+attributed directly to her intrigues amounted to nearly 50,000 men.
+Edith Cavell was charged with harbouring refugees, not with spying; she
+was charged with saving lives, not with taking them. If there is any
+possible defence for the actions of a spy it is that motives of
+patriotism prompted him to undertake a dangerous work against an enemy
+power. Since Mata Hari was the native of a state which never entered the
+war, and since she cloaked her actions under the guise of a neutral, no
+motive of patriotism can be advanced in her favour.
+
+Should there be any suspicion that her judges were actuated by
+animosity, let it be said that she was treated throughout the trial with
+a courtesy which one would expect any lady would receive from men who
+were gentlemen by instinct. If the accused resented some of the
+questions asked concerning her relations with men, it must be recalled
+that the character of courtesan was her chosen line of defence. The
+investigators were remorseless in their pursuit of the truth, but at no
+stage of the trial did the accused woman or her lawyer protest against
+the injustice she is alleged to have encountered. There were times when
+she pleaded with her judges, but it was a plea for men to treat a woman
+with gallantry, not because they were being unjust or because she wished
+to have their justice tempered with mercy. The terrible Mornay, special
+scourge of traitors and spies, did rouse her to anger at one stage of
+the trial, but that was because of his keen scent for the truth which
+underlay an ambiguous statement.
+
+It is a generally accepted fact that when a person is wrongfully accused
+of spying, the nation for whom he is alleged to be working will
+generously make some confidential representations to secure his release.
+No country tries to save its own spies; those unhappy creatures, when
+caught, are left to stew in their own juice. But a wrongfully accused
+person who has no friends among the other nations can always secure the
+support of his own country’s representatives. It was, for example, very
+much to the disadvantage of Dreyfus that no foreign country interposed
+on his behalf or denied the accusation that he had spied in their
+interests; in the eyes of many well-informed people that omission was
+conclusive evidence of guilt apart from any further evidence. Nor did
+anyone arise to protect Mata Hari until after her conviction, and then
+the utmost her friends attempted was to beg for a mitigation of
+sentence. At no time did she make any request to the Minister of the Low
+Countries for assistance. Such an application would have obtained an
+immediate response, since it was well known that she was the mistress of
+the chief of the Dutch Cabinet.
+
+Instead, her defence was undertaken voluntarily by a well-known French
+advocate, Maître Clunet, who enjoyed a reputation as a legal scholar
+that extended beyond the frontiers of his own country. Maître Clunet
+asked to be entrusted with the defence of the spy. For personal reasons
+he was judged to be the most suitable lawyer for the task; it was rare
+for criminals of Mata Hari’s class to have such a highly qualified
+advocate. He was a man of considerable charm of manner, an urbane
+disposition, and was a venerable figure with his snow-white hair. The
+medal of the 1870 campaign which he wore must have appealed to the
+military men who formed the court and ensured for him the respect which
+a veteran invariably receives from the younger men of his profession.
+When Mata Hari was at the height of her beauty and power Maître Clunet
+had fallen in love with her and for some time they had been on terms of
+intimate friendship. Now at the age of seventy-five he was still under
+the influence of this early infatuation. The story of their ill-omened
+love-affair may be read in Charles Hirsch’s excellent romance, _La
+chèvre aux pieds d’or_, where the story is sympathetically treated and
+the noble character of the aged lawyer is shown to its fullest
+advantage. Never for a single moment did Maître Clunet surrender the
+belief that he could obtain the release of his client. He persisted in
+this belief even when an impassioned appeal to his intimate personal
+friend, President Poincaré, had failed, and, unfortunately, his fervid
+advocacy finally reached the point when it furnished a ludicrous
+anticlimax to the trial.
+
+The Third Court-Martial sat in the Court of Assizes. The president was a
+venerable warrior of some distinction, Colonel Sempron, formerly
+commander of the Garde Républicaine. The sittings were held behind
+closed doors, the delicate nature of the evidence making absolute
+secrecy a necessity. Even the sentries set to guard the doors were not
+permitted to approach nearer than ten paces. Only the members of the
+court, the prosecutor, defender, one other officer, and the guard
+accompanying the prisoner were admitted to the room in addition to the
+witnesses. The “one other officer” was Major Massard, of the General
+Staff, who was later charged with the sensational execution of the spy.
+It is to him that we are largely indebted for these facts relating to
+the trial given in his _Espionnes de Paris_, and it may be said that no
+other authentic account of the evidence has been given because it
+necessarily dealt with certain events upon which the French authorities
+prefer to maintain silence. No secret service cares to expose its
+methods. Then again, there were several people whose indiscretions did
+not amount to treachery, but who were entangled in the skein of intrigue
+and love-affairs and who are thus spared the humiliation inflicted upon
+those who were associated with the spy’s life.
+
+The maintenance of this secrecy ensured an absolute silence in the large
+room. Indeed, the court with its dust-covered benches, intended to
+accommodate a large audience, seemed strangely remote from the noises of
+man’s world. It was as though the trial had been transported to the
+realm of ideal justice. Into this silent chamber two gendarmes led their
+prisoner to face the charge of intelligence with the enemy, which is the
+legal expression for spying. Major Massard describes her on this
+occasion as being rather tall and slender, her clear-cut face assuming a
+sour and disagreeable expression when she was hard pressed, which
+neutralized the effect of her regular features and the lovely
+periwinkle-blue eyes, the eyes that were physically beautiful but
+morally terrible. In her blue dress, cut to a low point, a coquettish
+three-cornered hat of military cut, she lacked nothing of elegance, but,
+what surprised the onlooker, this professional dancer was not remarkable
+for grace. He describes her as German in manner as well as in heart. But
+everyone who saw her was struck with the attitude of resolution with
+which she faced her judges and the high intelligence which she displayed
+during the course of the trial. She had a ready reply for every
+question, denying only the motives ascribed to actions which she
+admitted performing. When compared to Messalina she displayed no
+umbrage; she gloried in her vice of passion. Closely adhering to the
+accepted course of conduct popular with the spies of the time, she
+boldly proclaimed her defence and stuck to it tenaciously. A courtesan,
+yes; a spy, no. If she had been compelled to act suspiciously at times,
+it was because she had to protect the identity of the men who entered
+into relations with her. Mata Hari was not merely frank; she was proud
+of her highly placed lovers and the generous manner in which they
+treated her.
+
+Addressing the officer-judges she told of visiting army manœuvres in
+Silesia, France, and Italy in the company of high officers, perhaps with
+the object of impressing the court with the importance of her friends as
+compared with their own subordinate grades. But this professional pride
+was misplaced. Army manœuvres are no place for a woman of refinement or
+delicacy to go holiday-making, as these men very well knew.
+
+“On the day war was declared,” said the president of the court, “you had
+luncheon with the chief of police in Berlin and afterwards accompanied
+him on a tour through the city, where you received the acclamations of
+the crowd.”
+
+“That is quite true,” admitted Mata Hari. She then gave the explanation
+of her meeting with this official, who came to inspect her theatrical
+costume which had been reported insufficient.
+
+“Then a short while afterwards you entered the secret service. The chief
+of that service sent you on a confidential mission to Paris, providing
+you with 30,000 marks, and designating you with the symbol H21.”
+
+“It is true,” the dancer conceded, “that I received a ‘baptismal’ name
+by which I could correspond with my friend, and the sum you mention. But
+those 30,000 marks were not my salary as a spy, they were the price of
+my favours, for I was the mistress of the chief of the espionage
+service.”
+
+“Yes, we know that. But the officer appears to have been unusually
+generous.”
+
+“Thirty-thousand, generous! It was my price; my lovers never offered me
+less.”
+
+She was then asked about her journey to Paris and the reasons for it,
+but she held to the story which she had given at the time to obtain her
+passports, the need for removing her furniture from Neuilly. This was
+interrupted by her journey to Vittel, where, she admitted, her residence
+was purely private and had not been made necessary through service in a
+hospital.
+
+With these officers who were her judges Mata Hari frequently tried to
+find a weak spot and to play on it. They were all soldiers, men who must
+have been easily touched by this devotion to a victim of the war, and as
+Frenchmen they could not fail to respond to her romantic renunciation of
+a wasted life. This one true sensation of her heart’s love might have
+gained sympathy had there been any supporting evidence to prove her
+sincerity, but, the fortunate explanation of her residence in Vittel
+having served its purpose, it was promptly abandoned. Neither Mata Hari
+nor her defender made any effort to explain why she renounced this
+laudable intention in favour of resuming her gay life. Such an omission
+was a grave error, for it was pointed out that her departure from Vittel
+corresponded with the completion of the two tasks she had been sent to
+perform for the benefit of the German espionage service. Within that
+fair bosom must have been a heart, resolute, indomitable, devoid of any
+weak scruple.
+
+On the subject of correspondence with the enemy she contradicted herself
+as she did in private conversation in order to make her utterances suit
+the various occasions. The president presented a terrible indictment of
+her treachery at Vittel, charging her with communicating to Abteilung
+III the intelligence which she had gathered from indiscreet officers,
+concerning the dropping of French agents behind the German lines.
+
+“It is true,” she admitted, “that I corresponded with my lover, who was
+no longer in Berlin, but in Amsterdam. It was no fault of mine that he
+was chief of the espionage department, but I did not communicate
+anything to him.”
+
+“When you were at the front you had knowledge of the preparations which
+were being made for the offensive,” charged the president in a grave
+tone.
+
+“I knew from some of my officer friends that something was in course of
+preparation, certainly. But even if I had wished I could not have
+informed the Germans. I did not warn them because I could not.”
+
+This was a strange statement after she had just admitted being in
+correspondence with the head of the secret service in Amsterdam. But,
+with her, duty and falsehood were synonymous; such irreconcilable
+statements were not matters of consequence to her, and she appeared to
+think that they should not have weighed with the judges.
+
+Then the president, very grave now that he was approaching the fatal
+proofs, questioned Mata Hari on her correspondence with her daughter
+through the diplomatic mail of the neutral Legation.
+
+“I have written, I admit it,” she says with candour, an admission that
+any mother might be proud to make. “But I sent no information of
+military matters.”
+
+“We have proof to the contrary. We know also to whom you sent it.”
+
+This was the first hint allowed to fall which indicated the full extent
+of the Second Bureau’s knowledge of her activities. Mata Hari grew pale
+and made no effort to insist upon her innocent intentions. Instead she
+shifted her ground adroitly.
+
+“Certainly, a woman of the theatres as I am cannot fail to attract
+attention. It is natural. Some one must have been following me.”
+
+Mata Hari was not easily disconcerted. In spite of the gravity of the
+accusations brought against her she retained her serenity except on such
+occasions as this, and then her replies had a touch of asperity, her
+looks became harsh and distrustful, and her gestures too theatrical. But
+on the whole she successfully maintained the character of her defence.
+Only when some wholly unexpected revelation caused a momentary
+consternation did she lose her studied pose. The moment when the
+president revealed the secret of her correspondence was one when Mata
+Hari was nonplussed and fenced wildly with her opponent.
+
+She was next examined upon her reasons for volunteering to enter the
+French secret service, and the replies at least show that she had no
+scruple about betraying her friends, either French or German.
+
+“There was nothing extraordinary in offering to be useful to France,”
+she contended. “I was very well placed to do so with my useful
+associations. Besides, I had no money.”
+
+“Your German friends soon sent you 10,000 marks through the neutral
+Legation,” suggested Lieutenant Mornay.
+
+“That money was from my friend.”
+
+Again it is worthy of comment that she can or cannot communicate with
+her German lover, just as it suits the convenience of the moment. In
+making this sharp retort to the president of the court Mata Hari
+betrayed signs of anger. Perhaps it was because a moment earlier she had
+boasted that this man never offered her less than 30,000 marks.
+
+“From your friend, the head of the espionage service,” was Mornay’s dry
+comment. “Finally, you became a spy in the service of France. What did
+you do?”
+
+“I gave information to the chief of the Second Bureau concerning the
+places on the Moroccan coast where submarines landed arms, information
+that was very useful and very important....”
+
+“And where did you obtain that information?” asked the president. “If it
+was correct it shows that you were in direct communication with the
+enemy; if it was false, you were deceiving us.”
+
+This time the dancer was completely disconcerted. In trying to explain
+the inexplicable she stammered inconclusive suggestions. She had heard
+about it at a diplomatic dinner where she was dancing, but she could not
+say where it was nor who had inadvertently betrayed this important
+confidential information, which most certainly should not have been
+known to any neutral diplomatist in Paris. Realizing that her perplexity
+and evasions were creating a bad impression, Mata Hari lost her temper
+again. Flushed with anger, she flashed back at Colonel Sempron:
+
+“After all, I did what I could for France. My information was good.... I
+am not French.... I owe you nothing.... You are only trying to confuse
+me.... I am only a poor woman, and for officers you are lacking in
+gallantry.”
+
+Mornay bowed gravely to the accused and murmured, “Madame must forgive
+us; we are only defending our country.”
+
+The dancer was obviously disquieted by this shrewd attack, but after a
+moment’s reflection she tried to dissimulate her unrest by arrogantly
+retorting:
+
+“I am neither French nor German, but belong to a neutral country. You
+are persecuting me, you are unjust, and, I repeat, you are not gallant.”
+She regarded Mornay for a moment while her lips curled with scorn before
+saying, bitterly, “Oh, but that man is horrid.”
+
+“Calm yourself, madame,” Colonel Sempron suggested, and having given the
+accused time to recover her composure, he continued: “Captain Ledoux
+gave you a document which you were to carry to one of our agents in
+Belgium. What did you do with that paper?”
+
+The accused did not answer.
+
+The president pressed for a reply: “Do you recall to what use you put
+the paper confided to you for transmission to our agent?”
+
+“No,” was the dull response.
+
+One of the members of the court-martial says that he does not think Mata
+Hari had fully recognized her danger until the moment when this
+reluctant monosyllable was forced from her lips.
+
+That seems quite probable, for the spy must have seen that a great pit
+was opening at her feet. It will strike the reader that it is
+inconceivable that an accomplished spy should be unprepared for this
+emergency. Her entire conduct over the abortive mission to Belgium is
+incomprehensible without the full knowledge of her subsequent activity.
+The truth is that Mata Hari was placed in an exceedingly difficult
+position. Had she sought the assistance of the French military mission
+in London when her further progress was checked, she must have been
+required to produce the document she was carrying as proof of her good
+faith; the Second Bureau should have had that paper restored to them
+when her mission had failed. The absolute necessity of preserving intact
+such an important paper as a list of spies operating in a foreign
+country is too obvious to merit emphasis. Unhappily for her, we know
+that she had dispatched this precious document to the German officials
+in Amsterdam before she left France, and the French secret service knew
+that it had passed out of her possession. It was for this reason that
+they had recommended her to apply to the French mission in London if she
+should desire assistance, knowing all the while that she lacked the
+proof of her identity as a French agent.
+
+Had Mata Hari claimed any recollection of disposing of this paper she
+would have been immediately involved in a terribly tortuous path of
+untruth to explain why she had not used it to identify herself in
+London. Complete loss of memory was the only defence, inadequate as it
+was. Mata Hari, then, denied knowledge of the precious document
+committed to her charge. The president proceeded to enlighten her.
+
+“That agent to whom you had to report was arrested in Brussels by the
+Germans, and three weeks after your departure from Paris he was shot.”
+
+It is obvious that at this stage of the examination the judges must have
+reached a reasonably sure belief that Mata Hari was guilty of the charge
+brought against her. To increase their conviction they now witnessed the
+complete overthrow of her assurance. They saw her hesitations, her
+stammered replies, her loss of confidence, as the president and the
+relentless Mornay sought to wring the truth from her. In spite of all
+their efforts, however, it was not possible to extract any confession.
+Beyond a refusal to recall what she had done with this paper she could
+not be induced to go.
+
+Then they questioned her about her stay in Madrid.
+
+“In Madrid you occupied the room next to that of the chief of the
+espionage service in that city.”
+
+“That is so,” she acknowledged.
+
+“This agent from Berlin paid you frequent visits?”
+
+“That also is true.”
+
+“Did you receive gifts from him?”
+
+“Certainly. He was my lover.”
+
+She was on surer ground now.
+
+“You know and we know that your messages to your German lover in
+Amsterdam were signed by the spy-signature H21.”
+
+“That is not correct,” was the quick retort. It will be recalled that
+Mata Hari had already admitted that she used this symbol so that she
+could communicate with this man who, “through no fault” of hers, was
+head of an espionage department.
+
+“Pardon me, madame, it is correct and the proof of it is in the telegram
+which the German agent in Madrid sent to his colleague in Amsterdam
+asking for money to be paid to H21 through the Ministry of a neutral
+country.”
+
+This was the only time when Mata Hari came near to a complete breakdown.
+The knowledge that the French were aware of the existence of this
+telegram caused the bold front to collapse. The woman who had been
+imperturbable through a severe examination became a frightened creature
+with haggard eyes and tightened lips from which words came shrilly and
+brokenly. She floundered pitifully. Maître Clunet felt compelled to
+interpose to rescue his client.
+
+“All that proves nothing,” objected the venerable lawyer, frightened by
+the effect of this blow on his old lover.
+
+“I tell you ... I ... It was for ... it was to pay for our intimacy. It
+is ... it is my price.... Oh, you gentlemen of France, believe me! Be
+gallant!”
+
+Maître Clunet became alarmed at the state of his trembling client, and
+the poor man, forgetting his function as defender of an accused spy,
+became once again the loving protector of a lovely woman threatened with
+disaster. He solicitously offered her a bottle of smelling-salts and a
+box of chocolates which he had thoughtfully provided in his distracted
+efforts to offer her consolation.
+
+“I have no need of those,” cried Mata Hari, harshly, in repulsing him.
+“I am not a child. I shall be brave.”
+
+Then she faced the court defiantly.
+
+“You cannot deny,” said the president when she was somewhat recovered,
+“that you went to the Legation and collected the sum which Lieutenant
+von Kroon had promised you.”
+
+“What is the use of denying it?” answered the accused, recovering her
+composure when on the more familiar ground of a much-loved artist.
+“Lieutenant von Kroon did not wish to pay for my caresses with his own
+money; he found it more convenient to pay in the money of his
+government.”
+
+“The court will accept that statement for what it is worth,” commented
+Colonel Sempron, drily. “You acknowledge that the money came from the
+chief of the German espionage service in Holland?”
+
+“Certainly. The money came from my lover in Holland, who paid, without
+knowing it, the debts of my lover in Spain.”
+
+Maître Clunet was much disturbed over these inaccurate replies. As a
+lawyer he was conscious of the irreconcilable replies Mata Hari was
+giving in her efforts to extricate herself from the impasse into which
+she had been driven. How to reconcile her declaration that von Kroon was
+paying his debts with government money with that in which she said that
+her German lover was paying for the pleasantries of his colleague in
+Spain? The court closed its first session at this stage. During the
+recess the old advocate who was protecting his lover went about trying
+to find how his case stood in the eyes of those who had heard it. The
+prospect was bad. But he did not lose courage. When Major Massard was
+invited to give an opinion he said, brusquely:
+
+“I think she is nothing but a clever hussy and that she is done for.”
+
+The lawyer would not confess defeat. He never lacked confidence until
+the bitter end.
+
+“Wait,” he said—“wait until you have heard the witnesses I shall call.
+But wait most especially for my address to the court.”
+
+So far Mata Hari had borne herself with considerable credit except for
+those one or two deviations from her haughty air and that moment when
+she almost collapsed when the president of the court revealed the extent
+of the Second Bureau’s knowledge of her activities. As each successive
+blow fell upon her head the lawyer would turn upon her the eyes of a
+faithful but powerless friend, as though apologizing for his lack of
+influence to save her pain. The accused merely shrugged her shoulders
+and pouted with annoyance. On the other hand, she was lavish with
+amiable words and provoking glances for the benefit of the two simple
+gendarmes who guarded her.
+
+When the court reassembled to hear her defence and Mata Hari heard that
+some of her influential friends had acceded to her request to give
+evidence on her behalf, she gaily resumed all her coquettish art. Having
+taken her place at the bar, she energetically wielded a lipstick,
+powdered herself, joyfully accepted a small bouquet from the adoring
+advocate, and decorated her corsage with a flower. She was happy and
+smiling again, nourishing some secret hope. If Maître Clunet had
+discussed the case with her during the recess it is certain that he had
+imparted his own optimism to the client. The discarded chocolates were
+produced and the accused munched contentedly. All the ravishing glances
+of which she was capable were launched against the judges as they took
+their seats, it is even insinuated that at an unguarded moment she
+smiled brightly upon the terrible Mornay.
+
+And the witnesses?
+
+The first was he who had been her first lover when she came to France,
+Jules Cambon the chief of the permanent staff of the Ministry of Foreign
+Affairs. He was a typical diplomatist, suave, confident, and
+distinguished, but for the moment so embarrassed that, in addressing
+him, Mata Hari did so with averted eyes so that she might spare him
+further discomfort.
+
+“Why have you called this witness?” asked the presiding officer.
+
+Without moving, without looking at the witness, Mata Hari said in her
+alluring low voice:
+
+“Monsieur occupies one of the highest offices in France. He is
+acquainted with all the intentions of government and with the projected
+military operations. After my return from Madrid I met him again. He was
+my first friend after I was divorced and it was only natural that I
+should meet him again with joy. We passed three days and nights
+together. Today I have but one question to ask him: Did I at any time
+enquire for information, have I ever profited from our intimacy to
+extract from him any secret?”
+
+“Madame never put to me any such question,” answered the witness.
+
+“You see,” interrupted the impassioned defence lawyer, “she is no spy.
+Had she wished to gather precious information she had but to reach out
+her hand.”
+
+“Then what did you find to talk about for three whole days?” asked the
+somewhat incredulous president. “When the nation is at open war did you
+not even mention the subject which occupies every heart and mind? That
+is unbelievable.”
+
+“Unbelievable but, nevertheless, true. We spoke about art—Indian art.”
+
+A gleam of hope flashed across the eyes of the accused, who got
+consolation from this statement which did little credit to the sense of
+responsibility in a man who had now been nominated to the post of
+ambassador.
+
+“Let us admit that,” said Mornay. “But you will acknowledge that the
+accused is intelligent enough to recognize that it is not so easy to
+lead by the nose an important diplomatist as it is to manage young
+officers who are drunk with love and kisses and incapable of refusing
+anything to an illustrious artist. You must acknowledge that her ability
+to approach such a high official gave the accused great credit with the
+_Boches_. It has been said that some of the paper on which Mata Hari
+wrote to her friends in Madrid and Amsterdam was headed ‘Ministry of
+Foreign Affairs—Office of the Minister.’ There is no doubt that this
+important association was the means of obtaining for her the very high
+payment she received. By exhibiting herself to other spies in the
+company of the illustrious statesman who appears at the bar she
+surrounded herself with an aureole of power which allowed her to be more
+exacting.”
+
+When asked if he had anything to add to his statement, the witness
+replied, “Nothing has arisen to alter my good opinion of the lady.”
+
+Nevertheless, his relief at being released from further examination was
+obvious. His face had grown pale as Mornay began to speak, as though he
+feared pressure on other matters not altogether related to his
+affectionate regard for his friend. He was still a gentleman, however,
+for as he left the witness stand the ambassador bowed in his stately way
+to the delighted dancer, whose face, it is said, bore the unmistakable
+expression of pride which might have been forgiven any young lady who
+was modestly acknowledging that she had “landed” an ambassador.
+
+The next evidence was productive of a characteristic incident. General
+Messimy, the former Minister of War, had been one of the numerous
+victims who succumbed to the lure of the Red Dancer. He was no longer
+Minister. His duty as a local commander kept him on the scene of
+operations, so that his evidence took the form of a sworn statement
+which declared that the accused had never asked questions relating to
+the conduct of the war nor had ever addressed to him an enquiry which
+could have aroused suspicion. The president of the court was then about
+to read a letter which he held in his hand, when Mata Hari leaped to her
+feet with a startled exclamation:
+
+“Do not read that letter, _Monsieur le colonel_.”
+
+“I must do so,” he protested.
+
+“Then I beg you not to make known the name of the writer,” she
+persisted.
+
+“And why not?”
+
+“Because the writer is married and I have no wish to be the cause of a
+drama in a virtuous family. Do not pronounce the name, I beg of you.”
+
+The colonel was an old colleague of General Messimy, he was something of
+a family friend, and he would gladly have spared a former Minister the
+humiliation of associating his name with a letter which, as evidence,
+could only have been of value in a breach-of-promise case. The old
+general had written of his deep love and of intimate things with the
+gusto and abandon of a young man enduring the transports of first love.
+But as Colonel Sempron hesitated, another member of the court rose in
+his seat and requested that the letter be read in full, together with
+the writer’s name. Reminded of his duty, the colonel began to read, and
+Mata Hari relinquished her protest with a little pout of
+dissatisfaction. Until the presiding officer read the signature of the
+letter none of the other members of the court had apparently known of
+the liaison between their former chief and the dancer, for the
+revelation caused them to regard one another with looks of stupefaction.
+The former Minister of War! The old dugout who had frustrated plans of
+abler men and who had been kicked out of office to make way for a more
+intelligent and active soldier, had been carrying on an intrigue with
+one of the enemy’s agents! These irreverent young officers could not
+wholly conceal their glee at the astounding announcement. But Mata Hari
+had felt that General Messimy’s name would impress them and his evidence
+remedy the unpleasant effect of the ambassador’s testimony. When she saw
+the smiles of amusement on the faces of her judges she could not refrain
+from a petulant outburst which betrayed her annoyance.
+
+“You are very indiscreet, messieurs.”
+
+“It is to be understood, then, that you never spoke of the war to the
+Minister?”
+
+“Never,” was the emphatic reply.
+
+This was the last of the influential men who bore testimony to her
+character; the remainder of the witnesses were domestics who spoke
+feelingly of her customary kindness and charity, declaring for the most
+part that it was inconceivable that a woman of such kindness of heart
+could have engaged in the vile practice of spying. Before leaving the
+high officials, however, let us say that it was clear that they had not
+been engaged in treacherous acts either by intent or otherwise.
+Indiscreet, infatuated, foolish they may have been, but not to the
+extent of having engaged in a conspiracy against their country. But, as
+Mornay suggested, it is impossible to deny that their friendship had
+been of incalculable value to the spy. During the course of little more
+than a year it is known that Mata Hari received between $12,000 and
+$15,000 for her services to Abteilung III. When one recalls the
+pitifully small sums paid to other agents, this was royal compensation
+and shows the value of her labour on behalf of the enemy.
+
+The appearance of the ambassador and the evidence of the former Minister
+had done nothing to strengthen the case in Mata Hari’s favour. The old
+advocate then declared the case closed and began his address. What he
+said has never been divulged. Only a few indications of the impassioned
+nature of his speech for the defence have leaked out from that silent
+grey room. The evidence presented by the commissioner for the government
+was irrefutable. Naturally it has been impossible to reproduce here all
+the evidence which was laid before the court. Much of it will never be
+made public, at least during the present generation, because
+reputations, both national and individual, were jeopardized. The Second
+Bureau have their own reasons for reticence, and state reasons have made
+it imperative not to reveal the whole mass of evidence which was
+accumulated against this dangerous woman.
+
+The line of defence adopted by the incontestably great master of the bar
+was not convincing. He alone seems to have preserved an inflexible
+assurance that his client was innocent and to have hoped, by eloquently
+expressing his conviction, to convey the same impression to others. To
+parade her lovers in order to obtain a reluctant confession of their
+failure to resist the charms of the Circe was not a convincing manner to
+rebut the incriminating knowledge marshalled by the implacable Mornay.
+
+Mata Hari had been notorious in Paris for many years, and to be known
+and recognized in that city is to be exposed to the malicious gossip of
+the most brilliant and most pitiless press of the world. The weekly
+journals, notably the _Cri de Paris_, had frequently commented upon her
+love-affairs, delighting in mocking each new victim of her charms as he
+was discarded in favour of a successful rival. The old lawyer, who
+preserved the memory of her charm and perfidy, was chivalrous enough to
+protect her with his eloquence. His devotion was worthy of a better
+cause. So hopelessly weak was the case that it illustrates the inability
+of indubitably meritorious advocacy without good material to support it.
+
+We repeat, in his final plea Maître Clunet was unconvincing. He barely
+touched upon the nature of the evidence, confining himself to a moving
+appeal on behalf of a woman who had sacrificed her beauty, her talents,
+and her art to the cultivation of vice and crime. He pictured her
+unhappy married life, the persecution by a wretched husband, and her
+efforts to obtain a living by her art with all the forceful presentation
+of an eloquence which had commanded admiration for twenty years. But the
+defects of the woman could not mitigate the guilt of the spy. In this
+case to know all was not to forgive all, as the advocate hoped. The
+effect of his long plea on those who heard it was most clearly defined
+upon the subject of his address. The accused composed herself, face and
+figure, in a theatrical attitude when the lawyer reached the highest
+flight of his fervent oratory. In this final act of the drama she
+skilfully displayed all the strange charm which had made men her foolish
+slaves; she ceased to be the accused struggling to prove her innocence,
+in order to become a fascinating woman and a talented artist.
+
+“Have you anything to add to your defence?” asked the presiding officer
+when the address was finished.
+
+“Nothing. My advocate has told you the truth,” she replied. “I am not
+French. I have the right to have friends in other countries, even among
+those at war with France. I have remained neutral. I count upon the
+goodness of heart of you French officers.”
+
+The advocate was so touched by the moving effect of this simple
+statement that he effusively seized her hand and expressed his
+admiration.
+
+The case was complete, the members of the court filed out to the
+retiring-room where they were to discuss their verdict. Mata Hari was
+not present at this consultation. After an absence of ten minutes they
+were ready with their decision. To each officer in turn, beginning with
+the youngest, lest his opinion be influenced by the example of his
+seniors, the president addressed the question:
+
+“In your soul and in your conscience are you convinced that this woman
+is guilty of having communicated information and documents to the enemy,
+and of having caused the death of many of our soldiers?”
+
+Very calmly and without hesitation each officer replied, “Yes.”
+
+As the members of the court signed the judgment, one of them threw down
+the pen and exclaimed, passionately:
+
+“It is horrible to condemn to death, in the possession of all her beauty
+and charm, a creature who is so seductive and of such fine intelligence.
+But her treacherous intrigues have caused such calamities that, if it
+lay within my power, I would have her shot a dozen times.”
+
+It is not customary in a French court-martial to have the verdict
+announced to the prisoner by the court. That is done by a court
+attendant. The old lawyer’s training had enabled him to grasp the
+attitude of the judges toward his client when they left to consider
+their verdict, and he cautioned Mata Hari that she must be prepared for
+the worst. When at last the little ceremony of reading the sentence was
+carried out, Maître Clunet wept unashamed. The guard was called out and
+Mata Hari set before them.
+
+“Judgment in the name of the French people!” cried the official, using
+the time-honoured formula.
+
+“Present arms!”
+
+As the sentence of death was read to her in the fading light of a
+pleasant June evening did the Red Dancer hear, from the shades of
+desolation and terror, the ghostly tread of marching feet as a phantom
+army paraded, that army which had gone loyally to its death at her
+behest, while she, in listless ease, lingered among the garlands of
+flowers in the rooms of her wealthy adorers? At the rattle of arms
+brought briskly to the salute, breaking the solemn warm stillness of the
+late afternoon, did she recall the sight of thousands of troops saluting
+her royal lover as she stepped from her carriage on his arm? Then must
+she have thought of the serried ranks which soon might salute her soul
+as it sped to Siva’s hell, their vengeance at last achieved.
+
+It was a pathetic scene. The old advocate, defeated in his most delicate
+case, stood with tears streaming from his weakening eyes. And Mata Hari?
+Does she cry aloud or faint or betray any signs of feminine weakness?
+Silent, serene, almost indifferent, she listened to the crisp sentence
+of the official who read her death warrant. An enigmatic smile played
+about the sensuous lips until the words had ceased, and then, realizing
+that she was about to die, she turned away, nervously biting her lips.
+
+“My God! she knows how to die, that one!” was the admiring comment of an
+old soldier of the guard.
+
+
+
+
+                           _Chapter Sixteen_
+
+
+Cell No. 12 at the prison of Saint-Lazare, which Mata Hari occupied, had
+acquired a certain notoriety in French criminal records. Mme. Steinheil
+and Mme. Caillaux had previously been tenants. It is a large room with
+two windows and three beds, one for the prisoner and two for the
+religious Sisters whose duty it was to guard her. None of the
+distinguished occupants of the cell brought to it one half the romance
+that Mata Hari invested in that drab interior. Almost from the moment
+she entered the cell there were sinister rumours of the contemplated
+efforts of either her admirers or her secret-service colleagues to
+secure her escape if the imposing list of her notable lovers failed to
+move the President to act within his powers of clemency. It is possible
+to see in Mata Hari’s conduct during her imprisonment a firm conviction
+that some power, working outside the gaol, would bring about a
+mitigation of the death penalty.
+
+During the trial she had succeeded in preserving a courageous exterior
+which had surprised and impressed those who witnessed it; secretly she
+was haunted by the fear of death. In spite of her uttered words, which
+were but a faint echo of the pessimistic philosophy that despises life,
+the awful consequences of an adverse judgment shook the very foundations
+of her faith. Her outer courage was based upon an unwavering faith in
+the legion of admiring friends whipped up by her adoring advocate, who
+never for one moment doubted his ability to organize a mass of
+influential opinion strong enough to secure a revocation of the sentence
+of death. This steadfast devotion to a wisp of hope never left either
+the condemned or her defender. Presently we shall see something of the
+methods instituted to obtain her release, but let us for the moment
+consider the testimony of a man who had the Red Dancer under close
+observation during the time of her imprisonment.
+
+Dr. Bralez, the assistant prison doctor, says of her:
+
+“If you ask whether I thought her guilty, I should be compelled to
+answer ‘Yes, against my will.’ It does not seem logical to me that a
+creature of her nature, with her pride, her imagination, her love of
+art, her beauty, her culture, and her contempt for money could debase
+herself to the point of seducing drunken aviators to betray secrets of
+military importance. However, there is no doubt that the evidence before
+the court-martial was too strong for her defence. I recall paying her a
+visit on the day the death sentence was read to her. I can assure you
+that her calm, her indifference, amazed me. Had I been her confessor I
+should have been tempted to sound the depths of her soul and offer her
+the consolation of faith, but my rôle was merely that of medical adviser
+and for that reason I was compelled to maintain a reserved attitude.”
+
+Mata Hari’s only request was for some veronal to enable her to sleep,
+but this the doctor had to refuse, and two days later he was surprised
+to observe that she had no need for the drug, for her nights were no
+longer disturbed by the perspective of a sinister termination to the
+tragedy in which she was compromised. Dr. Bralez repudiates the
+statement that she was like a caged panther; he protested that there was
+nothing cruel about her, although she loved to surround herself with an
+atmosphere of savage instinct. Nevertheless, this opinion was very
+different from that formed by the Sisters of Mercy who were her
+guardians. In the early days of her prison life they found Mata Hari
+intractable, imperious, excited, feverish, full of the craziest notions
+for indulging her luxury-softened body. Not only was her temper violent,
+but her demands for ministering to her personal service were absurd. She
+demanded maids to attend to her toilette; at one time she insisted upon
+having a daily bath in milk when it was almost impossible to obtain that
+precious fluid for the young babies in Paris. But that was a detail when
+her own comfort was concerned.
+
+Later she became more tractable and reasonable. This was when her
+friends were occupied with the efforts to secure her release or at least
+a mitigation of the sentence. Maître Clunet was the main prop of her
+earlier hopes, although, as we shall see, not the only one. He had two
+sources from which he drew an inexhaustible supply of hope with which he
+nourished Mata Hari’s emotions. Fear of a criminal’s death compelled her
+to hope. Doubtless her fervid imagination had pictured some romantic
+tragedy which would provide a fitting climax to a life filled with the
+dramatic, whereas the prospect of a judicial execution is shorn of any
+impressive details upon which the romantic mind can feed. The first
+instrument that the lawyer employed was an imposing array of powerful
+friends who were marshalled behind an appeal for clemency. Her royal
+lovers, the great officials, artists who failed to understand why crimes
+against humanity could possibly weigh against the divinity of inspired
+art, scholars whose imaginations dominated their intellects—all
+responded to the invitation to sign a plea for mercy. Her love-affairs
+organized themselves into a procession to plead against her condemnation
+as a spy.
+
+But there were some notable omissions from the list of advocates for
+mercy. In spite of the strong persuasion of her consort, himself a
+German princeling, Queen Wilhelmina of Holland refused to do for her own
+subject what she did so willingly for Miss Edith Cavell. Other
+signatories to the petition for the English nurse who declined to
+subscribe to the plea for Mata Hari were His Holiness the Pope, King
+Alfonso, and the head of the American mission.
+
+After having enjoyed the distinction of royal favours granted by the
+Prussian Crown Prince and after the Duke of Brunswick had showered gold
+upon her, Mata Hari, temporarily, as was her custom, bestowed her
+affections upon the head of the council of her own country, Van der
+Linden, who addressed an eloquent plea on behalf of his distressed
+mistress to President Poincaré. When this was rejected he heaped insult
+after insult upon the French people, calling them savages and barbarians
+for proposing to execute the talented artist whose companionship he had
+enjoyed. These protests, coming from a Dutch source, provoked many a
+grim smile in France, but the insults made but little impression. Had
+Van der Linden made some effort to check the audacity of the innumerable
+German secret-service agents operating in his country, the effect of his
+plea might have been different.
+
+The second hope upon which Maître Clunet’s activities were directed,
+should the first fail, was his personal friendship for the most powerful
+friend he had, the President. We do not pretend to know what transpired
+between the President and the lawyer at their interview. The only thing
+that is known is that President Poincaré had to listen to an eloquent
+petition made the more moving by the obvious sincerity of the man whose
+great intellect was for the time being completely absorbed with the
+object of his former love. It has been said on good authority that the
+dramatically powerful interview recorded in Hirsch’s _La chèvre aux
+pieds d’or_ is substantially a correct reproduction of what took place.
+
+But if Maître Clunet’s attitude leaves any room for doubt, that of the
+President must have been crystal clear. Owing to the genial ineptitude
+of M. Malvy’s administration in office during the first two years of
+war, the soil of France had produced a crop of conspiracies amounting in
+substance to a state of internal corruption from which few modern
+democracies could have emerged without being shattered to their very
+foundations. Within a few months were uncovered the Invalides plot, the
+Bonnet Rouge crimes, the mysterious death of Almereyda before his
+treacherous conspiracy of defeatism could be properly investigated, the
+corruption of Paul Bolo, the condemnation of Lenoir and Duval, and the
+prosecution of too many spies to leave any doubt that Paris was riddled
+by enemy agents working with impunity. With such an accumulation of
+villainies threatening the commonweal, could any guilty person who fell
+into the hands of outraged military justice have any reasonable hope of
+justice outside the letter of the law? Would any President have dared to
+inflame public spirit when it was clamouring to have its social
+structure purged of all Defeatist elements and all cosmopolitan
+parasites destroying the security of France, by exercising his
+prerogative of clemency in favour of a woman who had sent thousands of
+French soldiers to their deaths and who still remained proudly
+unrepentant if not actually proud of her infamy?
+
+Yet with an infantile pride in themselves Mata Hari and her advocate
+cherished hopes of intervention from the outside in spite of all. Public
+spirit in France was violently inflamed against Mata Hari, more so than
+against any other spy seized during the war, but the existence of an
+universal horror against her in no way affected her high hopes of
+release. The average Frenchman was firmly convinced that the spy had so
+earned the gratitude of her employers that they would not discard her,
+that some vigorous effort would be attempted to free her from the
+prison, and there was undoubtedly good grounds for this belief as the
+civil police became more and more anxious about the safety of their
+prisoner. This anxiety culminated on the morning of her execution,
+although the story, such as it is, was not known until after the event,
+and so fitted into the circumstances that to this day many people find
+ample evidence of the success of those audacious individuals who had
+accepted the task of liberating her.
+
+The common supposition that the attempt at rescue would be made by some
+of the German secret agents proved wrong. The honour of having provided
+the most sensational story of her rescue is given to a man who has been
+called Pierre de Mortissac, the degenerate son of a noble house who
+dissipated a fortune in his own amusement and in an unsuccessful attempt
+to steal Mata Hari’s love from her German lover. All that is known of de
+Mortissac is that he went through life in a series of romantic
+love-affairs involving the elopement of a Russian princess, the suicide
+of an Englishwoman of noble family, and with numerous less distinguished
+victims until he fell in love with Mata Hari. For years he is supposed
+to have spent his life in defending himself against the bitter jealousy
+of the German lover, who employed several desperadoes to interfere at
+every turn with the happiness of his rival. It is also said that this de
+Mortissac tried ineffectually to induce Mata Hari to give up her
+dangerous work. His biographer states that it was through this man that
+she left Spain to come to Paris, where his influence was to have been
+used to gain a pardon for her, but that the Second Bureau were too quick
+to act and all that was left for the faithful lover was a sensational
+attempt at rescue. The plot has not the merit of originality. It was
+borrowed wholesale from Sardou’s melodrama, made famous in the opera,
+“Tosca.” Here, it will be recalled, it was arranged that the bullets
+should be extracted from the firing-squad’s rifles, so that the hero
+would then not only feign death, but would be rescued by the devotion of
+his lover. Something of the same thing was to be attempted in Mata
+Hari’s case. Arrangements were made to deal with every situation as it
+arose on the fatal morning.
+
+Not only had the officer in charge of the firing-squad been bribed to
+use blank cartridges, but the gendarmes responsible for pinioning Mata
+Hari’s arms were also bribed to fasten the cords so lightly that her
+body could sink to the ground when the shots were fired. A French
+military execution is the occasion for much ceremony. There is a large
+parade of soldiers, whose duty it is to march past the dead traitor
+after the execution, and it was felt that if Mata Hari were fastened
+securely to the stake she could not successfully feign death before all
+those eyes. Therefore, she had to fall with her face averted. Then
+arrangements had to be made to make the coffin admit enough air to keep
+her reasonably comfortable after the ceremony and the grave had to be
+dug shallow enough to prevent so much earth being thrown on the coffin
+that the occupant would suffocate. All these details are important in
+view of what happened later. For the moment they are offered to explain
+why many people still find in Mata Hari’s amazing composure the strong
+underlying conviction that all she had to do was to play a part as
+though the turf on the rifle-range at Vincennes was the stageboards of
+the familiar Olympia, and her death a childish deception.
+
+As the days sped on Mata Hari had as sole comfort the daily visits of
+the young prison doctor, on whom she still practised her arts of
+fascination, and the equally regular visits of her old friend and
+advocate, always laden with delicacies, gossip, and perennial hope. On
+the eve of the day fixed for her execution the advocate failed to
+appear. He was absent, making his final but unsuccessful appeal to the
+President to remit the death penalty. This defection afflicted Mata Hari
+as a gloomy presentiment of evil, for the old man had assured her that
+he would certainly appear that day with the cheering news that his old
+and powerful friend had listened sympathetically to the tragic story of
+her sad, misguided, and misunderstood life. Her distress was apparent to
+the Sisters of Mercy who attended her. At first Mata Hari regarded these
+two nuns with marked hostility. The presence of the two simple souls,
+devoid of all vanity and show, was an offence to her more fastidious
+tastes in companions. She mocked them for their simplicity in that
+manner of all beautiful women who find an endless source of humour in
+poverty, physical ugliness, and honesty. For a long time the accused
+woman had refused to accept the trifling offer of comfort from the two
+Sisters, but slowly her resistance broke down before the unfailing
+goodnature and kind heart of the sparkling-eyed Sister Leonide.
+
+Seeing her deep gloom on the day when Maître Clunet failed to bring his
+daily measure of cheerful gossip and hope, Sister Leonide, with a shrewd
+knowledge of the dancer’s vanity, approached her with a singular
+suggestion:
+
+“You have got to save yourself from this fit of black despair,” she
+said. “Why don’t you dance? You will forget all your art and, besides,
+you have never given us an exhibition of your talents.”
+
+And in the condemned cell, with no other audience than the two nuns,
+Mata Hari danced!
+
+The action was sufficient to restore her equanimity. The despondency to
+which she had succumbed vanished like magic and she prattled gaily. If
+the advocate failed her there was still a mysterious power hovering over
+her destiny which supported her profound faith in herself.
+
+The incidents in cell No. 12 on the fatal morning have been described so
+many times with fanciful additions that we will rely upon the evidence
+of the two eye-witnesses whose evidence most nearly corresponds. The
+actual moment for the execution had been fixed for 5.47 A.M. An hour
+before this time the officials charged with the execution collected at
+the prison to carry out their unpleasant task.
+
+“She is asleep,” said the warden when formal application was made for
+her surrender to the military authorities.
+
+The officials were unexpectedly joined by one visitor from whose company
+they had wished to be spared. It was the venerable old man who had
+steadfastly fought for the spy’s release, but who now brought a fresh
+weapon for the consternation of the already harassed officials. Reports
+and rumours of an attempt at rescue on the way to Vincennes worried
+them. The guards were strengthened to reduce the chance of any desperate
+action on the part of either the German agents or the mythical lover.
+Perhaps Maître Clunet could enlighten them upon the situation. Those
+charged with the execution of Mata Hari had a great sympathy for the
+respected old lawyer, whose conduct during the trying time had not
+caused any of them to forfeit their affection for him, but, knowing his
+profound attachment to the accused woman, they feared his deep emotions
+might lead to some scene of tragic despair if he witnessed the morbid
+details of her death.
+
+“Maître Clunet, we have heard unpleasant reports,” said the senior
+officer of the party. “Can you tell us whether you have heard any
+suggestion that an effort will be made to rescue Mata Hari this
+morning?”
+
+“No, I have heard nothing, but——”
+
+“On your word of honour, you have heard nothing?”
+
+“On my honour,” declared the old man, emphatically. “I have not
+hesitated to use all the legal resources at my command, but I would have
+nothing to do with any illegal effort to release the prisoner. I still
+rely on the law. Gentlemen, Mata Hari cannot be executed this morning. I
+formally oppose any such action and invoke Article 27 of the Penal Code,
+Book 1, Chapter I.”
+
+Maître Clunet’s announcement, supported by the quotation of a fearsome
+legal instrument, caused consternation. So this was the opening phase of
+the attempt to rescue Mata Hari at the last minute. These officers were
+soldiers and not lawyers who understood legal forms and authorities. A
+lawyer had to explain (imagine the scene of these astounded officials
+excitedly demanding proof at that early hour of the morning!) that the
+clause of the “Code” which was invoked provides that a woman expecting
+to give birth to a child might not be executed. The group of soldiers
+regarded the triumphant lawyer with looks of blank dismay. Justice,
+after so many delays, was foiled. The inexorable Second Bureau had been
+outwitted by the country’s laws.
+
+“It is impossible. No man has visited the accused in her cell,”
+protested the prison warden, who was responsible under this grave
+accusation.
+
+“Suppose it was I,” cried the gallant old man, “I have visited her.”
+
+“What, at your age?” demanded Mornay, cross as the devil at being
+dragged from a warm bed so early in the day to answer crazy legal
+conundrums. “Why, you must be at least seventy-five!”
+
+“No matter what my age is, I invoke Article 27 of the Penal Code and you
+cannot execute Mata Hari this morning.”
+
+Still uneasy in spite of Mornay’s confident attitude, the tragic
+procession trudged down the corridor, lighted only by a flickering
+gas-jet, and echoing to the heavy tread of soldiers’ feet. Behind the
+fatal door lay a human creature in peaceful slumber, dreaming of
+deliverance and false hopes of happiness deferred.
+
+To awaken her abruptly from these cherished visions of liberty and love
+to the sight of the doorway filled with the figures of those who had
+come in the name of 50,000 dead to demand vengeance, was to expose her
+to merciless anguish. The pitiless betrayal of their comrades, the
+little nameless graves surmounted by a tattered _poilu’s_ cap, the cries
+of the wounded, the tears of the orphans were momentarily forgotten in
+the wish of those gallant French officers to spare their victim any
+unnecessary suffering. Everyone was asked to make as much noise as
+possible so that the prisoner might be awake at the time of their
+arrival at the door of her cell and might have had the opportunity to
+compose herself for their reception. Her visitors knew of her
+temperamental outbursts and feared a more than usually severe attack at
+this moment of crisis. But when the door was opened the two guardians
+were found to be sitting up in their beds, rubbing slumber from their
+eyes, while the prisoner was still sleeping peacefully. They had to
+shake her gently to inform her that the advocate’s plea for a remission
+of sentence had been denied and that she was to die that morning.
+
+“What? It is not possible, it cannot be possible,” was all that she
+could say, believing in her heart that she was speaking the truth.
+
+Then she was told that if she could prove what Maître Clunet had
+suggested, that she was an expectant mother, her life would be spared,
+but that she must subject herself to a medical examination. Mata Hari
+burst into laughter. Recognizing her acquaintance, Dr. Bralez, she
+hastily wrapped a peignoir about her nakedness, for she was, as usual,
+insufficiently clad for these ceremonies, and, approaching him,
+whispered:
+
+“Did you hear that? Old Maître Clunet says if I avail myself of Article
+something or other of an old Code which forbids the execution of a woman
+about to be a mother, I can be saved. Isn’t he an excruciatingly funny
+old dear?”
+
+She laughed readily and naturally at the absurdity of the advocate’s
+suggestion to save her life, and then with a gesture, not devoid of
+dignity, she dismissed the idea and refused to be examined by the
+doctor, declaring that Maître Clunet was under a misapprehension
+inspired by his devotion to her interests, and that her health was
+excellent. She then asked that the visitors might withdraw so that she
+could complete dressing and prepare herself for the ceremony in which
+she was cast to play the principal rôle. As the men were retiring from
+the cell the condemned woman called to Dr. Bralez and asked to have his
+company, which she preferred to that of the more sedate nuns.
+
+The officials then retired and began again to question Maître Clunet
+about this threatened attempt to rescue the prisoner, but he could shed
+no light on the matter and surrendered himself to the horribly
+inevitable. Inside the cell Mata Hari carried on a running commentary on
+the proceedings while completing her preparations.
+
+“You saw how those gentlemen were afraid to find me in tears or to hear
+my sobs?” she said to Dr. Bralez, as she leisurely dressed as though she
+had no more serious business on hand that morning than a series of
+social visits. “You heard how they recommended me to be brave? If only
+they knew how well I have slept.... Any other day I would not have
+forgiven them for having awakened me at such an early hour.
+
+“What is the object of executing prisoners at dawn? In India it is not
+so; they are more reasonable. There, death is a penalty that is made a
+ceremony to be celebrated in full daylight, before crowds of guests
+decorated with sweet-scented jasmine. I would much prefer to have gone
+to Vincennes in the middle of the afternoon after having had a good
+luncheon with some friends. All the same, I do not think they would want
+to have me shot with an empty stomach. What do you recommend?”
+
+“A cordial,” suggested the good Sister Leonide.
+
+“A glass of rum,” is the doctor’s prescription, for by law the condemned
+is thoughtfully provided with this fortifying liquor and, if desired, a
+soothing cigarette.
+
+“That’s it, give me a glass of grog.”
+
+As the spy sipped the rum and sweetened water supplied her she enquired
+about the weather. She was told that it was a beautiful morning.
+
+“In that case you must give me the beige cloak I was wearing when I came
+here,” she said to the two nuns.
+
+Mata Hari had now relinquished all hope of delivery from her execution
+except what might be possible through the agency of the mysterious lover
+who was exerting himself outside the prison walls. Her attitude of
+negligence and indifference perplexed everyone who did not know of some
+secret support. They wondered at the calm demeanour of this nervous
+artist who was accustomed to outbursts of violent anger if affairs did
+not march in accordance with her desires. They marvelled at the
+enigmatic smile by which she concealed her last deception. She played
+the part allotted to her nobly, to the admiration of all who beheld her
+confidence.
+
+“Death?” she soliloquized. “Death is nothing, nor life, either, for that
+matter. To die, to sleep, to pass into nothingness, what does it matter?
+Everything is an illusion.”
+
+One of the nuns, shocked by this heresy, hoped to see the woman
+reconciled to the orthodox faith by reminding her that the prison
+chaplain and a Protestant minister were in attendance, and recommended
+that Mata Hari make her peace with God by seeing either one of them.
+While considering this suggestion Mata Hari carefully adjusted the combs
+in her hair before a small mirror, powdered her face and bust, and
+generally completed a careful toilette. If she was to feign death she
+could at least be a well-turned-out corpse. Observing that the nuns had
+clumsily knotted the laces of her dainty shoes, she mildly remonstrated.
+
+“It is plain to see, Sister, that you do not have laces like these in
+your boots. But no matter, I will put them right, and you may call the
+Protestant minister. Although I have very little need of his ministry,
+he may come in.”
+
+The woman whose only religion had been the worship of sensuous pleasures
+and whose nearest approach to spirituality was a form of Buddhist
+pessimism, knelt before the minister and was baptized in the rites of
+Anabaptism. Then the officers entered the cell to claim their prisoner.
+
+“Have you any declaration to make?” asked one of them.
+
+Mata Hari turned upon him with amused contempt as she answered:
+
+“None, and if I had it would not be to you that I should make it.”
+
+“Have you any wish to express?”
+
+“Yes. I would like to see Captain Marov, but as he is in Russia I shall
+be content to write to him if you will give me permission.”
+
+In the prison director’s office she calmly adjusted her hat before
+sitting down to write three letters, one to her young daughter full of
+wise motherly counsel to guide aright her life, one to the favoured
+French lover who had braved public condemnation to bear witness in her
+favour, and one to the absent Marov. These she handed to her lawyer with
+the strict injunction that he display care in putting them into
+envelopes, so that her lovers’ letters might not go to her daughter; she
+wished no such embarrassing situation. This final privilege completed,
+Mata Hari submitted to the instructions of the officers. The party of
+guards and official witnesses got into waiting cars and proceeded
+without delay to the place of execution. On the way the prisoner chatted
+pleasantly with the two gendarmes who accompanied her, gently
+reproaching one for remaining a bachelor. They arrived at the
+rifle-range just as a chill dawn was lighting a grey sky and the whistle
+of a near-by factory summoned the early workers to resume their daily
+tasks.
+
+Troops were drawn up in readiness, infantry in horizon blue, cavalry
+with their long black plumes drooping from brass helmets, and artillery
+in service dress, forming three sides of a hollow square. On the open
+side of this formation was the sinister tree, stripped of its leaves and
+branches. When her car arrived on the scene Mata Hari stepped daintily
+between some small pools left by the night rain. At the sight of the
+brave parade collected in her honour the prisoner whispered to the
+terrified little nun who accompanied her:
+
+“Come, little Sister, hold tightly to my hand.”
+
+It was not because Mata Hari desired comforting assurance, but because
+she was protecting the trembling Sister, that she made this remark. The
+religious was feeling the poignancy of the impending tragedy much more
+than the principal actor. She was nervous at the presence of all this
+soldiery required to execute judgment upon one lone woman. Mata Hari was
+accustomed to military pomp. Her royal lover had made her familiar with
+its significance. Now, as the troops responded to the sharp command
+“Present arms!” they were saluting the Prince of All Things in whose
+presence Mata Hari was soon to answer for her deeds. Nevertheless, Mata
+Hari accepted the salute as homage to herself, and as she passed across
+the steadfast ranks she bowed gravely in acknowledgment. Slowly, with
+the majesty of a princess before her guard of honour, the Red Dancer
+permitted herself to be guided to the sinister tree. When she had gained
+her place in the centre of the parade she said to the attendant nun, who
+was still clinging nervously to the other’s firm grip:
+
+“Now it is over, you may release me.”
+
+The legal requirements were completed by the reading of the
+court-martial’s sentence. The minister prayed until the officers began
+to stir nervously at the prolonged delay, the faithful nun knelt on the
+soft moist earth and added her prayers to that of the minister, begging
+a final mercy for this sister who had erred. Then the priest, having
+completed his ministrations stepped back, the gendarmes pressed the
+condemned woman against the tree trunk. When a bandage was produced to
+shut out from her sight the final preparations for her death, Mata Hari
+disdainfully waved it aside. She who had looked so boldly on life had no
+need to fear death, especially a death in which she was merely playing a
+part for the deception of some five thousand interested spectators, in
+order to carry out the instructions of a faithful lover whose unseen
+hands were arranging the details. Mata Hari knew that the officials had
+got wind of some plot for her rescue. They had examined Maître Clunet
+about mysterious reports they had received during the night, but if the
+old man had been able, faithfully, to deny knowledge of the existence of
+any scheme to release her, the officials were, nevertheless, uneasy.
+When the two gendarmes made a pretence of tying the prisoner to the tree
+they did not even bother to fasten the knot of the rope. A good deal of
+significance was later attached to this omission.
+
+The three lines of troops were called to attention. From their ranks
+came a dozen soldiers at the double, halting at the word of command
+within ten paces of the condemned. Quickly the young officer in command
+of the party gave his orders:
+
+“Take aim.”
+
+Slowly he raised his sword to give the signal which would produce the
+fatal volley. Mata Hari was playing her unrehearsed part admirably. She
+gaily kissed her hand to the minister, to the old advocate who was now a
+pitifully weak old man, weeping unrestrainedly. To the young officer
+standing with upraised sword she said in a sweet voice:
+
+“Thank you, monsieur.”
+
+“Fire.”
+
+At the crack of the rifles there was a deadly hush which lasted until
+the doctors had certified death and there came a last word of command:
+
+“Forward, march!”
+
+Round the three sides of the square went those French soldiers who had
+been called to witness the vengeance on their dead comrades, marching
+with the blare of trumpets and the roll of drums, glancing, who knows
+with what sensations, sidewards at the heap of huddled skirts lying at
+the foot of a bare tree, where a woman’s face lay smiling enigmatically
+at the overhanging canopy of heaven.
+
+The little group of awestruck spectators, who were prevented from
+approaching too closely the motionless body with its disfigured face,
+were about to disperse when the officer in charge of the execution,
+glancing expectantly at the weeping lawyer, asked:
+
+“Does anyone claim this body?”
+
+There was no response.
+
+Oh, ingratitude! The lovely amber-tinted body that had danced for the
+delight of so many was despised and rejected by all her numerous lovers
+when death had stilled its allurements.
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+That night the Paris newspapers told the curious world that the spy H21
+had paid the penalty of her crimes. In the morning when those whose
+morbid curiosity could hardly credit the truth visited the little
+cemetery, what was their chagrin to find that the shallow grave was
+empty! Instantly the report spread that Mata Hari had escaped the
+bullets of her executioners and had been carried off by the lover who
+had planned the escape. That is why one still meets on the boulevards of
+Paris certain devoted lovers of her memory who declare that she and
+Pierre de Mortissac have revived the corybantic orgies of the worship of
+Siva; whispers of marvellous and scandalous entertainment still interest
+the credulous.
+
+What is the secret of the empty grave? A grisly tale. Before the
+execution, a medical college, with the gruesome hunger for human bodies
+upon which to conduct the surgical experiments from which suffering
+humanity benefits, asked the authorities to surrender this body of a
+criminal for dissection. In accordance with their usual practice, when
+there was no claimant, the authorities made this concession to science.
+On the night that Mata Hari was shot her body was disinterred and
+carried to the clinic, where the surgeons had ample proof that death was
+due to the bullets of the firing party.
+
+And Pierre de Mortissac?
+
+A myth! The story goes that he had not bargained for the administration
+of a _coup de grâce_ which dissipated the hopes of success for his plan,
+and that he is now dragging out his life within the grey walls of a
+monastery on an isolated hill in Spain where there is no outlook but the
+heavens on which the thoughts of the inmates are piously turned. But all
+investigation has proved unable to fix upon any recognizable incident of
+his fantastic existence, and the prior and guest-master of the monastery
+have lost their benign attitude in answering questions relating to the
+presence in the monastery of Pierre de Mortissac.
+
+The history is ended, only the legends prevail. All that is known to the
+world in general of the Red Dancer of the Hundred Veils or no veils at
+all has been told here in an attempt to separate the truth from the
+fables. It has not been attempted to follow the legend to its entire
+length, for that would be an endless task that is being increased by the
+band of zealots who maintain that Mata Hari was a true Brahma and that
+she still lives.
+
+Between the mythical purple altar of the Kanda Swany where her life of
+romance began and the rifle-range at Vincennes where it ended there is
+the width of three continents. It required the talent of Mata Hari to
+bridge the gulf. Her origin was as she chose to make it; the end was
+none the less her own choice.
+
+
+                                THE END
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+                          TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
+
+
+ ● Fixed typos; non-standard spelling and dialect retained.
+ ● Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 79283 ***