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 164 of 254
Chapter X · Ruth Comes to Varandaleel · pp. 220–235
The Keepers of the People
p. 223A great groan of relief broke from him on his astonished ears. He raised his head, and said aloud in a voice that shook, “I will kill every damned Russian for giving me this ride!”
He rode down the hill, led his men quickly into the first plain; formed them into line; and galloped for the belt of timber. The fugitives did not come out of it; and he knew they were holding the road that ran through it. As they came to the edge of the trees, he called to his men to make no noise riding through them; and as he rode under them there came the crack of a dozen rifles, shrieks, and fierce cries, then silence; and he knew that the pursuers had been checked. His horsemen pushed quickly and quietly through the trees, there was little undergrowth, and they could hear the Russian officer shouting his orders. Prince Ralph rode down the sandy road, a dozen men behind him, and came on the fugitives in a natural clearing in the middle. He drew rein, to see them. They were crouched behind trees, peering for a sight of their enemies. A young man, in whom he recognised Althea’s poet, lay propped against a trunk; the blood was trickling from his mouth; he was sobbing out his life; and Ruth was bending over him, flask in hand. In the middle of the glade knelt the man in black, praying fervently in a voice that trembled with fear.
“O Lord, help us! O Lord, help us! O Lord, help us!” was the monotonous burden of his supplication.
Lord Lisdor turned an anxious, savage face on him, and cried angrily, “Shut that blasted row, Stucker, will you! I can’t hear what the devils are doing!”
Two of the Sikh servants on the left fired together, and a yell told that they had not missed.
Prince Ralph called to his horsemen to push on; and rode into the glade.
The man in black sprang up, and shrieking, “The Angel Gabriel! The Angel Gabriel! The Lord has heard! The Lord has heard!” rushed to Prince Ralph, and seized his hand, and wrung it.
Ruth let fall the flask, and tottered towards him, with outstretched arms, on stumbling feet, her eyes blinded by the overwhelming joy at the sight for which they had so long ached: Ruth, dishevelled, weary, travel-stained, in rags, but as beautiful as in his dreams.
Socrates
Reading The Keepers of the People · Book II, Chapter X · Ruth Comes to Varandaleel · Book II, Chapter X · Ruth Comes to Varandaleel · pp. 220–235
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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.