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 190 of 254
Chapter XIII · The Russians Go · pp. 258–273
The Keepers of the People
p. 266“Then we shall have to treat Ruth like Jonah, and throw her over the wall,” said Althea.
“Yes; that is how I feel about it. I feel that I have brought this trouble on you,” said Ruth sadly; “and I cannot see that I can be of any use to you in it. If I thought it would be any use, I would go down to the Russian camp now, gladly, and give myself up.”
“The palace shall burn over our dead bodies first!” cried Prince Raleigh; and Ruth gave him a grateful look.
“We do not know that it is trouble yet. The Russians have their real fighting to do,” said Althea.
“Besides, where should I come in?” said Lord Lisdor.
“You would be the Brutus of the hour,” said Althea.
“I’ll be shot if I would! Varandaleel ain’t my country, don’t you know?” said Lord Lisdor.
“That would make it all the more creditable to you to sacrifice Ruth,” said Althea.
“Oh, yes,” said Lord Lisdor.
“At any rate even a Russian despotism will be better for the Varandals than this one!” broke in the Princess Agnes. “It will not be so utterly soul-crushing!”
“No: it will only crush their spirits,” said Althea gently. “There are not many Russians who can laugh while they’re sober.”
“At least they will learn to read and write, and think for themselves!” said the Princess Agnes.
“The alphabet and the knout,” said Althea.
The old Prince rose, and led the way to the top of the tower. But a faint hum rose from the Russian camp; the troops were sleeping. Out on the plain a body of Varandal sharpshooters were harrying their outposts, and slowly driving them in. Althea pointed out to Ruth how dark the country was; there were no lights in the villages. The Varandals, indeed, were buried in a gloom of doubt and dismay and dread; the story of their defeat and their losses, of the shooting of the prisoners, was spread all over the land; and their hearts were very heavy. The villages for miles round the battle-fields were filled with the wounded, and their groans and cries grated distressfully on their ears. Their star seemed to have suffered eclipse; their God and their Princes seemed to have failed them; on the morrow these merciless strange enemies would be spreading desolation throughout the land; and they ached with a dull, desperate fury.
Socrates
Reading The Keepers of the People · Book II, Chapter XIII · The Russians Go · Book II, Chapter XIII · The Russians Go · pp. 258–273
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.