The Keepers of the People

Agnes bears a daughter. No woman may rule in Varandaleel: "It is the law, the law unchangeable." She swears she will never be the mother of a son of his, and turns her whole will to securing her daughter's rights. Ralph takes Latchimi from the spring and installs her in the Pavilion of Wonderful Delights, where she conceives a son who will be made mute at birth, as all the harem-born children of the Princes are. Agnes cultivates Althea as an instrument and learns the Varandal tongue from her.

10. The price of laughter (chs. viii–ix, pp. 201–220)

A village in the north-west, part-descended from the first Prince's black soldiers, has revived a bloody cult; Althea rides with a hundred horse to put it down and watches a flogging, two beheadings, and the execution of a boy whose parents and sister kneel in front of the Prince's horse to beg for him. The village elders make the response: It is expedient that one man die for the people. Riding home, Ralph says six words: "It is the price of laughter." Then a tiger gets loose; Althea shoots it three times to save Latchimi and the child; Ralph catches her up and kisses her on the mouth; and the book's second plot begins.

11. The war (chs. x–xiv, pp. 220–285)

Lord Lisdor, Ruth, the poet and a missionary have crossed Asia on the strength of a girdle of falcon's claws; the Russians capture them; Ralph, riding to intercept the column, finds them escaped and holding a belt of timber, and takes Ruth up into the saddle. The poet dies saying "Beautiful child!" The missionary is given the choice between death and silence, and chooses silence.

Eight thousand Russians under Melinsky force the pass. Ralph refuses to hold it. In the council of war he gives three reasons for fighting them inside the country: the Russians must be destroyed entire, the people need hardening, and "the people grow too thick on the ground — I want five or six thousand of the men killed." He will spend his worse regiments on the fighting and bring the best in at the end. The plan works exactly: two days of retreat, six thousand Varandal dead, a night attack on the Russian camp seen from the tower eight miles away, and a massacre in a gorge. Six hundred prisoners are taken, fed a magnificent dinner, and poisoned. The hemlock is Althea's suggestion; she means it kindly.