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 171 of 254
Chapter X · Ruth Comes to Varandaleel · pp. 220–235
The Keepers of the People
p. 235Lord Lisdor had scarcely come to the end of his tale when the gates of the courtyard clanged, and they heard a rattle of hoofs.
“Here is Prince Ralph at last,” said Althea, and heard from Ruth the quick sigh of relieved impatience.
He came in presently, having bathed and changed his dress; greeted his mother and father and the Princess Agnes; inquired of Ruth if she were rested from her weariness; sat down, and fell upon his dinner hungrily. He had had little time for eating.
“Well?” said Prince Raleigh, when he had turned the edge of his hunger.
“The Russians are here — marching on the pass in three columns from points about ten miles apart. They are very strong in cavalry; they have two batteries of mountain guns and some Maxims. I think they must be six thousand strong; and there are with them about two thousand auxiliaries they have gathered on the way,” said Prince Ralph; and he spoke with great cheerfulness.
“Six hundred thousand of them could never get through the pass,” said Prince Raleigh.
“I do not know — I do not know,” said Prince Ralph thoughtfully. “My plan is not yet made. But I think we will fight them in Varandaleel. We will talk of it to-morrow. There is no hurry.” He turned to Lord Lisdor, and began to ask him of his journey.
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
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.