LOUISE-MARIE DE FRANCE. L.A.S. "Sr Thérèse de St Augustin R. I.", [Carmel de Saint-Denis] June 28, 1784, [to Cardinal de Bernis]; 4 pages in-4. Beautiful, lengthy letter on the visit of King Gustav III of Sweden to the Carmelite convent. She had a visit from the King of Sweden which embarrassed her a little. He arrived with a small retinue and was at first not recognized by the nuns, He was then ushered "into the great parlor (where the door through which the Royal family enters is), opened the gate and asked him how he wanted me to treat him. He told me I was the Count of (I don't know what) [Gustavus III traveled under the name of Count of Haga], but I wanted to enter, so I went to fetch our Mother and some others and some tall veils, and we opened the door for him while the community gathered to be introduced to him. I led him into the apartment we had made for the royal family". She recounts her exchanges with the King, who "told me a lot about the late Roy" [Louis XV], and also about Bernis. He wanted to visit the house and the choir: "Nous misme a genouil luy point ensuitte après avoir fait une courte prierre", he examined a statue of the Blessed Virgin "qui est assez belle quoyque de pierre il me dit cest comme ça chez nous car nous avons gardé beaucoup du rit romain". Then he turned the conversation to the emperor [Joseph II] and his religious reforms: "His mother wasn't dead, he wouldn't have dared - he's a terribly lively man. I was in Rome while he was there, and I saw the hour that there was going to be a schism in Milan. I told him that when it didn't concern dogma, one could give in; it's the only thing he may have said that he didn't like. But as a good Lutheran, he thought he was giving praise to Our Holy Father, and he didn't hold back on his account [...] he examined our cell and sat on our straw seat, which he found a little hard. What pleased me the most was the simplicity of our House". He stayed for an hour, visited the refectory but was unable to see the garden because it was raining... Finally, she adds that she doesn't like "worldly visits, but for his I wanted it because I knew the feelings the late king had for him and the link he had always had between Sweden and France... He seemed comtend".