Note 74 — Chapter V · SCOUTS AND SPIES

To judge espionage with discrimination according to motives does not seem to be feasible in war. “Whether it be a patriot who devotes himself, or a wretch who sells himself, the danger they run at the hands of the enemy will be the same. One will respect the first and despise the second, but one will shoot both.”—Quelle I, 126. This principle is very ancient. As early as 1780 a North-American court-martial condemned Major André, an Englishman, to death by hanging, and in vain did the English Generals intercede for him, in vain did he plead himself, that he be shot as a soldier.