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diff --git a/79283-0.txt b/79283-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a7cd5a8 --- /dev/null +++ b/79283-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6651 @@ +*** 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 *** |