XIII.

What guilt was there, apportion it aright

To him who fixed the gages of the fight;

Blame man, who, reckless of the woman’s fate,

In greed for meaner pleasure lost the great;

Blame him, the vaunted sage, who knew her mind

Peer to his own in skill and wit refined,

Yet left the after-ages to bemoan

The waste of woman worth that dawned and die unknown.