Sir _Terpine_[277], haplesse man, what make you here? xxvi Or haue you lost your selfe, and your discretion, That euer in this wretched case ye were? Or haue ye yeelded you to proude oppression Of womens powre, that boast of mens subiection? Or else what other deadly dismall day Is falne on you, by heauens hard direction, That ye were runne so fondly far astray, As for to lead your selfe vnto your owne decay? Much was the man confounded in his mind, xxvii Partly with shame, and partly with dismay, That all astonisht he him selfe did find, And little had for his excuse to say, But onely thus; Most haplesse well ye may Me iustly terme, that to this shame am brought, And made the scorne of Knighthod[278] this same day. But who can scape, what his owne fate hath wrought? The worke of heauens will surpasseth humaine thought. Right true: but faulty men vse oftentimes xxviii To attribute their folly vnto fate, And lay on heauen the guilt of their owne crimes. But tell, Sir _Terpin_, ne let you amate Your misery, how fell ye in this state. Then sith ye needs (quoth he) will know my shame, And all the ill, which chaunst to me of late, I shortly will to you rehearse the same, In hope ye will not turne misfortune to my blame. Being desirous (as all Knights are woont[279]) xxix Through hard aduentures deedes of armes to try, And after fame and honour for to hunt, I heard report that farre abrode did fly, That a proud Amazon did late defy All the braue Knights, that hold of Maidenhead, And vnto them wrought all the villany, That she could forge in her malicious head, Which some hath put to shame, and many done be dead. The cause, they say, of this her cruell hate, xxx Is for the sake of _Bellodant_ the bold, To whom she bore most feruent loue of late, And wooed him by all the waies she could: But when she saw at last, that he ne would For ought or nought be wonne vnto her will, She turn’d her loue to hatred manifold, And for his sake vow’d to doe all the ill Which she could doe to Knights, which now she doth fulfill. For all those Knights, the which by force or guile xxxi She doth subdue, she fowly doth entreate. First she doth them of warlike armes despoile, And cloth[280] in womens weedes: And then with threat Doth them compell to worke, to earne their meat, To spin, to card, to sew, to wash, to wring; Ne doth she giue them other thing to eat, But bread and water, or like feeble thing, Them to disable from reuenge aduenturing.