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The Keepers of the People
A Critical Edition of the 1898 Novel
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English Edition · Branch 178 of 254
Chapter XII · The Russians Come · pp. 247–257
The Keepers of the People
p. 247CHAPTER XII
THE RUSSIANS COME
They were silent; and he drained his wine cup, and rose, saying, “I must go to the army. Come Althea; I need you.”
He bade them good-night, kissing his mother, shaking hands with the others: he would not see them again till the fighting was done: and left the hall with Althea. The sight of him going to danger, it might be to death, without a kindly word, a kindly look from her, struck a pang into the heart of the Princess Agnes; and for once she thought that for all his contempt for the loftiest ideals, some of the right might be on his side. But the sight of Althea with him, walking with a little swing in her carriage, more fitting in a soldier than a girl, struck a keener pang of jealousy into her; and his, “I need you,” rankled indeed.
Prince Ralph came to his wing with Althea; and while he armed himself, he said to her slowly, “Ride for me among the people, and watch their temper. Look to them well; and let the sight of you cheer them.”
“Very good,” said Althea.
“And if things should go wrong, as they well may, for I am taking a great risk in fighting the Russians on equal ground. If the army should fly, and the people be ruined, I shall be dead. Then, kill Ruth; and — and — yes — kill Latchimi. My father will see to Vashti and my mother. I need not tell you about yourself.”
“You need not tell me that,” said Althea in a steady, clear voice. “It shall be done.”
“Goodbye, then, little comrade,” he said; and his eyes were very kindly on her as he shook her hand.
Althea’s face flamed crimson; and she said faintly, “Kiss me.”
He stooped, and kissed her on the forehead; strode to the door; turned and smiled back at her where she stood trembling, her eyes set on him, her hands clenched; and was gone.
“That was not the kiss: that was not the kiss,” she said, with a little sob; and then after a pause, “It will not be hard to kill Ruth.”
She drew her hand across her eyes; ran to the door, and called to the Captain of the Guard to mount her ten horsemen quickly; and hurried up to the Golden Rooms to dress.
Socrates
Reading The Keepers of the People · Book II, Chapter XII · The Russians Come · Book II, Chapter XII · The Russians Come · pp. 247–257
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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.