When Arcite is released from prison but banished from Athens with the threat of death should he return, both men are utterly unhappy, Arcite, because he can no longer see Emelye, and Palamon because he fears that Arcite will return to Athens with a band of kinsmen to aid him, and carry off Emelye by force. After Arcite has gone Palamon reproaches the gods for determining the destiny of men so irrevocably without consulting their wishes or their deserts: "'O cruel goddes, that governe This world with binding of your word eterne, And wryten in the table of athamaunt Your parlement, and your eterne graunt, What is mankinde more un-to yow holde Than is the sheep, that rouketh in the folde?'"[180] Many a man, Palamon says, suffers sickness, imprisonment and other misfortunes unjustly because of the inexorable destiny imposed upon him by the gods. Even the lot of the beasts is better, for they do as they will and have nothing to suffer for it after death; whereas man must suffer both in this life and the next. This, surely, is not willing submission to fate. After some years Palamon escapes from prison and encounters Arcite, who has returned in disguise and become Theseus' chief squire. They arrange to settle their differences by a duel next day. But destiny was guiding Theseus' conduct too, so the narrator of the story says, and was so powerful that it caused a coincidence that might not happen again in a thousand years: "The destinee, ministre general, That executeth in the world over-al The purveyaunce, that God hath seyn biforn, So strong it is, that, though the world had sworn The contrarie of a thing, by ye or nay, Yet somtyme it shal fallen on a day That falleth nat eft with-inne a thousand yere. For certeinly, our appetytes here, Be it of werre, or pees, or hate, or love, Al is this reuled by the sighte above."[181] Theseus goes hunting and with him, the queen and Emelye. They of course interrupt the duel between Palamon and Arcite. Through the intercession of the two women the duelists are pardoned and it is arranged that they settle their dispute by a tournament set for about a year later.