Diotimos Library · Literary Fiction Collection · English Edition
The Keepers of the People
A Critical Edition of the 1898 Novel
Swipe or use the arrow keys.
English Edition · Branch 174 of 254
Chapter XI · The Council of War · pp. 236–246
The Keepers of the People
p. 239“They outnumber the Russians; and we have five thousand men armed quite as well, and as many guns. But if they couldn’t beat at least an equal number of them, the Varandals wouldn’t be worth saving. I believe that they would beat them if the numbers were the other way,” said Prince Ralph slowly.
“Well, well,” said Colonel Sayers; “I believe it myself. All the same, I know these Russians; and if your Highness thinks the people want bloodletting, they’ll let it.”
“And now, this is my plan,” said Prince Ralph.
“We let the Russians drive our men through the pass slowly. We draw back seven thousand men behind the woods so that they cannot see their full number. We keep five thousand men across the road here” — he pointed to the map — “three miles from the pass. They will fight the Russians for a day; and the remnant will fall back here, three miles from the palace, where we post five thousand more men. Our second position we will hold for a day, or so much of it as will let the Russians reach the plain before the palace in time to encamp for the night. The picked regiments, with the guns, will lie behind the woods here, on the further side of the plain. And in the plain itself we will fight the last battle and destroy them. The cavalry, and two thousand men will lie on the Russian right flank to prevent them raiding the villages, and cut off any bodies of cavalry they may send into the middle of the country. Or if the Russians fail to carry our second position, and fall back, the cavalry can dash in, and cut them off from the pass.”
Colonel Sayers looked at the map with careful consideration, and said, “You trust the Varandals.”
“I trust them,” said Prince Ralph.
“This Prince Melinsky will have good officers with him,” said Colonel Sayers. “Suppose they march for the centre of the country. This plan is upset.”
“The cavalry and the two thousand infantry can hold them till our second and third divisions come to their support, while our first division marches on their left flank.”
“Yes; I see,” said Colonel Sayers.
Socrates
Reading The Keepers of the People · Book II, Chapter XI · The Council of War · Book II, Chapter XI · The Council of War · pp. 236–246
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.