In his racily told Colours of the Century (Barvy století), the painter Jan Bauch has bequeathed us this eye-witness account. Around mid-October 1918 a crowd of demonstrators are seething along the Ferdinand Boulevard in Prague, shouting out "Down with Austria!". It is a Saturday and the critical hour of twelve o"clock approaches. A police officer on duty pulls out his fob-watch anxiously, nods and says: "Right then, gentlemen, three more times "Down with Austria" and home we go! I"m not going to stay here beyond midday on your account!"