al
blood of Egypt. Thou and I alone of men alive are descended, without
break or flaw, from that Pharaoh Nekt-nebf whom Ochus the Persian drove
from Egypt. The Persian came and the Persian went, and after the Persian
came the Macedonian, and now for nigh upon three hundred years the
Lagidae have usurped the double crown, defiling the land of Khem and
corrupting the worship of its Gods. And mark thou this: but now, two
weeks since, Ptolemy Neus Dionysus, Ptolemy Auletes the Piper, who would
have slain thee, is dead; and but now hath the Eunuch Pothinus, that
very eunuch who came hither, years ago, to cut thee off, set at naught
the will of his master, the dead Auletes, and placed the boy Ptolemy
upon the throne. And therefore his sister Cleopatra, that fierce and
beautiful girl, has fled into Syria; and there, if I err not, she will
gather her armies and make war upon her brother Ptolemy: for by her
father's will she was left joint-sovereign with him. And, meanwhile,
mark thou this, my son: the Roman eagle hangs on high, waiting with
ready talons till such time as he may fall upon the fat wether Egypt and
rend him. And mark again: the people of Egypt are weary of the foreign
yoke, they hate the memory of the Persians, and they are sick at heart
of being named 'Men of Macedonia' in the markets of Alexandria. The
whole land mutters and murmurs beneath the yoke of the Greek and the
shadow of the Roman.

"Have we not been oppressed? Have not our children been butchered and
our gains wrung from us to fill the bottomless greed and lust of the
Lagidae? Have not the temples been forsaken?--ay, have not the majesties
of the Eternal Gods been set at naught by these Grecian babblers, who
have dared to meddle with the immortal truths, and name the Most High by
another name--by the name of Serapis--confounding the substance of the
Invisible? Does not Egypt cry aloud for freedom?--and shall she cry in
vain? Nay, nay, for thou, my son, art the appointed way of deliverance.
To thee, being sunk in eld, I have decreed my rights. Already thy name
is whispered in many a sanctuary, from Abu to Athu; already priests and
people swear allegiance, even by the sacred symbols, unto him who shall
be declared to them. Still, the time is not yet; thou art too green a
sapling to bear the weight of such a storm. But to-day thou wast tried
and found wanting.

"He who would serve the Gods, Harmachis, must put aside the failings of
the flesh. Taunts mus