Page:America in the Struggle for Czechoslovak Independence (1926).pdf/106



New York City: It is not generally known that at one time during the present war Lieutenant-General L. C. Korniloff, whose victories in Galicia have so astonished the world, was an Austrian prisoner of war and that he escaped from Austrian captivity with the aid of a Czech soldier, who himself forfeited his life for the help extended to his distinguished Slav brother.

During the retreat of the Russian army from the Carpathians in the spring of 1915, General Korniloff, then commanding the rear guard, was captured by the Austrians and interned in Bohemia. In the summer of 1916 he managed to escape with the help of a Czech soldier, Frank Mrnak. For several weeks the two fugitives were making their way stealthily toward the Roumanian frontier, hiding by day and traveling by night. But one day in August they were surprised by gendarmes; the General got away and