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
Lagidæ? 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