"With which I am already acquainted," was the Egyptian's curt reply.
"I am inclined to doubt that," said Phanes with an incredulous smile.
"You have been driven out of Egypt, persecuted and insulted by Psamtik, and you have come to Persia to enlist Cambyses as an instrument of revenge against my country."
"You are mistaken. I have nothing against your country, but all the more against Amasis and his house. In Egypt the state and the king are one, as you very well know."
"On the contrary, my own observations have led me to think that the priests considered themselves one with the state."
"In that case you are better informed than I, who have always looked on the kings of Egypt as absolute. So they are; but only in proportion as they know how to emancipate themselves from the influence of your caste. —Amasis himself submits to the priests now."
"Strange intelligence!"
"With which, however, you have already long been made acquainted."
"Is that your opinion?"
"Certainly it is. And I know with still greater certainty that once—you hear me—once, he succeeded in bending the will of these rulers of his to his own."