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 198 of 254
Chapter XIV · The Russian Remnant · pp. 274–284
The Keepers of the People
p. 279“I am an Englishman still,” said Dr. Brand gravely; “but I have grown fond of the Varandals; and I am thinking of the unborn children. I do not weigh these Mongol scum against them.”
“It seems that they will give a lot of trouble,” said Lord Lisdor.
“No,” said Prince Ralph. “They will not harm the people.”
“There is always one way,” said Prince Raleigh.
Dr. Brand heaved a little sigh of relief; and Althea said softly, “I was thinking that. If these wretched men had a great feast, and plenty of wine, it would be all the same. They would never know of the hemlock.”
“You are always kind, Althea,” said Prince Ralph with a faint smile.
“By Jove, that’s pretty thick!” said Lord Lisdor.
“They come uninvited; we feast them; and they go away,” said Prince Ralph.
“How very dreadful!” said Ruth.
“This cold-blooded barbarity is inhuman!” cried the Princess Agnes. “You have been corrupted, Althea! Infected with the lust for blood! I shrink from you in horror! A child of your years to suggest this hideous slaughter!”
Althea’s eyes flashed: and she said shortly, “It is not barbarous. It is expedient.”
“It is expedient,” said Prince Ralph.
“But couldn’t you give them a trial? Couldn’t you try some other way, don’t you know?” said Lord Lisdor. “Why should I?” said Prince Ralph.
“Oh, you might, I should think” said Lord Lisdor.
“With filibusters?” said Prince Ralph.
“Filibusters! And what are you? Have you not made incursions into the land of all the peoples for hundreds of miles round, carrying off their goods and their women, whatever took your fancy!” cried the Princess Agnes.
“I was a raider,” said Prince Ralph with a faint smile.
“But six hundred seems such a lot, don’t you know?” said Lord Lisdor. “Now if it were a dozen, it would seem different. One couldn’t say much about a dozen.”
“But it wouldn’t be different,” said Althea.
“They fixed their own fate, when they shot the prisoners,” said Prince Ralph.
“But these poor men only obeyed orders! You cannot punish them for that!” cried the Princess Agnes.
“It is expedient that they die for the people,” said Prince Ralph.
“I raise my protest against this atrocious crime!” cried the Princess Agnes, furious. Prince Ralph looked at her with a faint, indifferent curiosity.
“It is expedient,” said Prince Raleigh sternly: he had wearied of the theme.
Socrates
Reading The Keepers of the People · Book II, Chapter XIV · The Russian Remnant · Book II, Chapter XIV · The Russian Remnant · pp. 274–284
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.