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.