She was at this time in a sort of confinement in the Convent of St. Mary, in Meaux, under Bossuet’s supervision. He had many interviews with her, and, in a letter to the prioress of the convent, said expressly that “he had examined the writings of Madame Guyon with great care, and found in them nothing censurable, with the exception of some terms which were not wholly conformed to the strictness of theology; but that a woman was not expected to be a theologian.” He also, at her desire, after six months’ residence, gave her a certificate speaking in the most favorable terms of her character and conduct. But no sooner was she again in Paris than her enemies started at once into life. The king was alarmed lest Quietism—a system of faith and practice at the complete antipodes from his own—should gain further currency, and Madame de Maintenon, taking her cue from him, as she always did, ranged herself promptly with its enemies. Bossuet also, finding that he had been more lenient toward her than was politic, demanded back from Madame Guyon his certificate. This she could not consent to surrender, and he set himself with full determination to crush her. December 27, 1695, she was arrested and incarcerated in the castle of Vincennes, where she underwent for nine months a very severe imprisonment. She says: “I passed my time in great peace, content to spend the remainder of my life there if such should be the will of God. I employed part of my time in writing religious songs.” In August, 1696, she was transferred to another prison at Vaugiraud, a village near Paris, where she remained till September, 1698, and was then immured in one of the stern, dark towers of the dreaded Bastile, where she remained four years more in solitary confinement. Just previous to her commitment there she writes: “I feel no anxiety in view of what my enemies will do to me. I have no fear of anything but of being left to myself. So long as God is with me, neither imprisonment nor death will have any terrors.” A little later she writes: “I, being in the Bastile, said to Thee, O my God, if Thou art pleased to render me a spectacle to men and angels, Thy holy will be done. All that I ask is that Thou wilt be with me and save those who love Thee. As for me, what matters it what men think of me or what they make me suffer, since they can not separate me from that Savior whose name is engraven in the very bottom of my heart. If I can only be accepted of Him, I am willing that all men should despise and hate me. Their strokes will polish what may be defective in me, so that I may be presented in peace to Him for whom I die daily.” Her language was: “In vain they smite me. Men but do What God permits with different view: To outward sight they hold the rod, But faith proclaims it all of God.” And similar are the beautiful words of her hymn: