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 69 of 254
Chapter VI · Prince Melinsky Arranges a Dog-Fight · pp. 59–66
The Keepers of the People
p. 66Prince Melinsky went from them towards the village; and they brought Althea to the house, Ralph Falcon carrying her very easily, and gently. She was too feeble to mutter more than a word of thanks; and they left her in Lady Lisdor’s care.
“I expect she’ll be very ill; she’s shaken all to pieces,” said Lord Lisdor.
“She’s a brave child,” said Ralph Falcon.
Prince Melinsky had three hours to wait at the village inn; and he spent what remained of them, after the cooling of his anger, in cursing the ill-luck which had separated him from Lady Lisdor. He was in two minds whether to stay at the inn for a day or two on the chance of seeing her; then he grew sure that in her present anger at Althea’s fright, she would be little disposed to listen to him. Then a fresh burst of rage against Ralph Falcon inflamed him; and he resolved to start for St. Petersburg without delay, and set about arranging the expedition to the New El Dorado.
Socrates
Reading The Keepers of the People · Book I, Chapter VI · Prince Melinsky Arranges a Dog-Fight · Book I, Chapter VI · Prince Melinsky Arranges a Dog-Fight · pp. 59–66
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.