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 216 of 254
Chapter XVI · The Affair of the Missionary · pp. 301–316
The Keepers of the People
p. 309“A new song,” said Althea, who did not know the air.
“No,” said Ruth: “it’s ‘Onward, Christian Soldiers.’”
“What! The hymn? Oh, this will never do! That wretched missionary has broken faith. He has disobeyed too,” said Althea.
The two girls gazed at one another; and the trouble grew in their eyes, as the enormity of the man’s crime came clearer to them.
“If we report it to Prince Ralph, we kill the man,” said Althea softly.
“Here is responsibility,” said Ruth.
They were silent.
“Some one has to take the responsibility, why not we?” said Ruth. “And as there is no use in half-measures, I propose that we capture the missionary, and his flock.”
“Varandaleel forms the character,” said Althea. “Come along.”
They slipped quietly from their horses; six of the mutes, at Althea’s bidding, did the same; and they made their way as quietly as they could between the singers and the village. As they came nearer the words grew more distinct, one voice singing in English, the others in a barbarous jargon, plainly as near English as they could get. The two girls and the mutes came right upon them, and found the missionary, two old women, and a girl. At the sight of them they would have fled; but the mutes seized them, before they had time. The missionary cried out, protesting.
“Bring them along!” said Althea, turning.
When they came to the horses, she ordered the prisoners to be mounted, each behind a horseman. The missionary protested two or three times: Althea was deaf to his words. They rode slowly towards the palace.
Once and again, when the going was smooth, that he could be heard, the missionary cried to the women to be of good cheer, the Lord would protect them; and all the way he kept up a broken mutter of prayer.
When they came to the palace, she left them in the courtyard; and, since Prince Ralph was not in his room, she sent one of his servants to tell him of their return. He came soon, and while they supped, Althea told him of their discovery, and the capture. He thanked her for her readiness, and said sternly, “The man has broken his word. It is well this was found out soon. The mischief will spread no further. It seems he has not learned Varandal.”
“What will you do with him?” said Ruth.
Socrates
Reading The Keepers of the People · Book II, Chapter XVI · The Affair of the Missionary · Book II, Chapter XVI · The Affair of the Missionary · pp. 301–316
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.