Diotimos Library · Literary Fiction Collection · English Edition
The Keepers of the People
A Critical Edition of the 1898 Novel
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English Edition · Branch 139 of 254
Chapter VI · The Hitch in the Succession · pp. 179–190
The Keepers of the People
p. 181“Not so,” she cried: “it is only in its women that a nation leads its highest life.”
“These are fine words,” said the old Prince; “but in the wrong mouth! You have made a bargain, look you; and you would be off with it. The Varandal women are honest. There shall be no such teaching in Varandaleel.”
His angry scorn cowed her, and she shrank away from his contemptuous eyes, frightened. But her fright was not long changing to a more bitter anger; and since she might not have her way openly, she determined to have it secretly.
The old Prince came to Prince Ralph, his wrath still hot on him.
“By the sword-arm of Ralph,” he said, “this is a strange woman you have brought! You are indeed patient!”
“I wait for the touch of motherhood,” said Prince Ralph; but there was no ring of hope in his tone.
“It will do nothing,” said the old Prince.
“Who knows?” said Prince Ralph. “Motherhood changes most women.”
“Not a woman of this kind,” said the old Prince; “she shall never wear the flame-coloured mantle.”
“She should not,” said Prince Ralph.
“Are there many such in England?” said the old Prince.
“The land is hag-ridden,” said Prince Ralph.
For a while the Princess Agnes sulked. She led a lonely life; for she had estranged the old Princess by perpetual complaint of Prince Ralph: sometimes, indeed, she would find him sitting with his mother, and break into complaint and reproaches before her. The Princes of Varandaleel were little used to human opposition; against hostile nature, against drought, flood, famine, and pestilence they had struggled without wearying; but it was a strange thing to him that a woman should set herself up against him. For the most part, he left her alone in her quarter of the palace, as in a prison; but he was honest; he had brought her there; and now and again he tried to teach her that there could be no change in the ruling of Varandaleel. Every time he tried afresh, she took it for a sign of his weakening, of a revival of his passion for her; and she reiterated her demands. In the end she wore out his patience; and he left her to herself, seeing that motherhood was indeed the only chance of her changing.
Socrates
Reading The Keepers of the People · Book II, Chapter VI · The Hitch in the Succession · Book II, Chapter VI · The Hitch in the Succession · pp. 179–190
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.