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The Keepers of the People
A Critical Edition of the 1898 Novel
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English Edition · Branch 131 of 254
Chapter IV · The Revolt of the Princess Agnes · pp. 161–171
The Keepers of the People
p. 166She never tired of putting forward her views when they met in the great hall in the evening; and she wearied the Princes who were averse from talking then of governing, inclined to put their work behind them, and relax their minds in talk with the Englishmen and Princesses on other matters. When she could persuade them to discuss the ruling of the people, the method of it revolted her: it seemed inhuman, and left a horror in her mind. This sense of their lack of humanity was for ever kept alive in her by her mute maids. The sight of them was painful to her: she could not forget that they were not dumb by nature but by art; and neither the content in their faces, nor the knowledge that the people held it an honour that their children should be chosen for the service, and that the mutes themselves looked down upon the speaking Varandals outside the palace, relieved her horror. Her purpose of awakening the souls of the Varandal women to noble ideals, of leading them into the paths of Culture and Progress, became more than ever her holy mission; it became her sacred duty to bring the people to gentleness by means of the women. Above all it was clear to her that only by means of the women would she obtain the power she coveted.
At last her burning soul would be denied no longer, and when Prince Ralph came to her rooms next, she said, “I will no longer be served by mutes, but by speaking women. Having mutes for maids makes me a party to this cruel and horrible practice.”
“It is not expedient that there should be speaking women in the palace” said Prince Ralph, watching her closely: he expected a revolt.
“I do not care! I will not have it! I will be a party to the cruel practice no longer!” she cried.
“It is not cruel. They have never spoken; therefore, they have lost nothing,” he said in his quiet voice.
“They are degraded to the level of brute beasts!” she cried.
“Not so: they are very intelligent. If they cannot speak, they can hear and see better than other people; they can talk to one another as easily as you and I. At least, they are happy.”
“So are the brute beasts happy,” she cried.
“No,” he said: “there is no likeness.”
Socrates
Reading The Keepers of the People · Book II, Chapter IV · The Revolt of the Princess Agnes · Book II, Chapter IV · The Revolt of the Princess Agnes · pp. 161–171
Ask about a concept, passage, contradiction, or connection.
Socrates will begin with this book and its sources.About This Reading Edition
Edgar Jepson’s The Keepers of the People begins as a late-Victorian lost-kingdom romance and becomes an unsettling political argument. Ralph Falcon moves from an English country house to the hidden state of Varandaleel, where laughter, secrecy, violence, education, and the duties of rulers are tested against one another.
Historical Text
The novel was first published in London in 1898 by C. Arthur Pearson. This reading text follows the owner-supplied critical edition, whose copy-text is the Methuen Colonial Library issue of the same year digitised by the Internet Archive. The supplied editorial note records the edition’s corrections, normalisations, limits, and unresolved textual risks.
About This Edition
This English Edition preserves the complete supplied text and apparatus: the introduction, reading guide, key words, plot outline, editorial note, both books and all thirty chapters, and the end notes. Its reader branches end at paragraph boundaries, with the original chapter structure and chapter page references mapped to the 1898 printing.
Rights
Edgar Jepson’s 1898 novel is in the public domain. The introduction, reader’s guide, key words, outline, editorial note, notes, editorial arrangement, and design of the supplied edition are © 2026 Diotimos Editions.