But, Harmachis, thou art more than this, for in thee and me alone yet flows the Imperial 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 must not move him, nor any lusts of man.  Thine is a high mission, but this thou must learn.  If thou learn it not, thou shalt fail therein; and then, my curse be on thee! and the curse of Egypt, and the curse of Egypt’s broken Gods!  For know thou this, that even the Gods, who are immortal, may, in the interwoven scheme of things, lean upon the man who is their instrument, as a warrior on his sword.  And woe be to the sword that snaps in the hour of battle, for it shall be thrown aside to rust or perchance be melted with fire!  Therefore, make thy heart pure and high and strong; for thine is no common lot, and thine no mortal meed.  Triumph, Harmachis, and in glory thou shalt go—­in glory here and hereafter!  Fail, and woe—­woe be on thee!”