Sunday, 30 September 1883

Gavini and Géry. We play bézique in the evening and talk of a great scandal.
The King of Spain, arrived on an official visit, has been booed, whistled at, insulted, threatened by the crowd. Grévy has been rather dishonest. And the reason? The King has just been made a Prussian colonel by the Emperor — of the 15th Uhlans, quartered at Strasbourg. A mischief of M. de Bismarck’s, and one I find very amusing.
Only it is still a great cowardice to have insulted the inoffensive Alphonse, while not daring to say a word to Germany.

Notes

Alfonso XII of Spain reached Paris on 29 September 1883 from Germany, where Wilhelm I had just made him honorary colonel of an Uhlan regiment garrisoned in Alsace; Parisians took it as an affront over Alsace-Lorraine and met him with open hostility. ↩