to get me across the frontier under the protection of a military uniform. I did not want to submit my passport to the Austrian authorities as I feared detection and judged that it would be much less likely for a false Austrian passport to be discovered by the German authorities. This assumption proved to be correct.
I proceeded to Asch shortly before my final departure and arranged everything with Dr. Amerling. I selected a spot in the neighbourhood for crossing the frontier, fixed the day of my escape, and on that day, September 1, 1915, I arrived. Dr. Amerling carried out his promise and after some difficulty managed to get me across into Bavaria on the road to Hof, whence I took the train to Munich. From there I had an hour’s journey to the Lake of Constance in the early morning between September 2nd and 3rd. On my arrival there I at once had to undergo an examination by German soldiers, which lasted for several hours and caused me great anxiety. Finally, at about five o’clock in the morning, I was allowed to go on board the steamer, which left for Rohrschach in Switzerland, and at six o’clock in the morning on September 3rd I set foot on Swiss soil. From St. Gallen I sent my wife a pre-arranged telegram to let her know that I was saved. Towards seven o’clock in the evening I was at Geneva, where Masaryk was waiting for me.
I had slipped away from home with only a small handbag, which my wife had hidden under her cape when she had accompanied me to the railway station at our summer quarters. I had promised her that I would return within two years at the most, and I told her to be prepared for hard times, as she would be harassed, cross-examined, and perhaps even imprisoned by the police. I advised her what attitude she was to adopt and what answers she was to give. Should things become unbearable she was to repudiate me. We were ready for whatever might befall. Every great and righteous cause demands sacrifices and they must be made resolutely, without sentimentality. And every sacrifice thus made will cost one’s opponents very dear. Such were my feelings when I took my seat in the train bound for Cheb and bade farewell to those who were dear to me.
It was not long before my wife and the others who were implicated in the plot were arrested and imprisoned in Vienna, as we had expected. In accordance with the pre-arranged code,
