And so thou wouldst be going, Harmachis?
The bird would fly the nest as, when they are grown, the swallows fly from the eaves of the Temple.

Well, it shall be as thou desirest; the hour is at hand.

I have taught thee all that I have learned, and methinks that the pupil has outrun his master," and he paused and wiped his bright black eyes, for he was very sad at the thought of my departure.
"And whither shall I go, my uncle ?" I asked rejoicing; "back to Abouthis to be initiated into the mysteries of the Gods ?" "Ay, back to Abouthis, and from Abouthis to Alexandria, and from Alexandria to the Throne of thy fathers, Harmachis! Listen, now; things are thus: Thou knowest how Cleopatra, the Queen, fled into Syria when that false eunuch Pothinus set the will of her father Auletes at naught and raised her brother Ptolemy to the sole lordship of Egypt.

Thou knowest also how she came back, like a Queen indeed, with a great army in her train, and lay at Pelusium, and how at this juncture the mighty Caesar, that great man, that greatest of all men, sailed with a weak company hither to Alexandria from Pharsalia's bloody field in hot pursuit of Pompey.

But he found Pompey already dead, having been basely murdered by Achillas, the General, and Lucius Septimius, the chief of the Roman legions in Egypt, and thou knowest how the Alexandrians were troubled at his coming and would have slain his lictors.