Donegild's forged letters and Constance's expulsion

Donegild's forged letters and Constance's expulsion are the decisive mechanism by which Donegild converts concealed hostility into public punishment. The episode does not merely separate Constance from King Alla: it makes falsified writing appear to be the king's will, so that an act of treachery travels through the kingdom as if it were lawful command. Constance's second exile is therefore a crisis of communication as much as a crisis of family and power.

The Messenger and the First Forgery

The deception begins with a messenger who is not presented as a neutral carrier of information. He acts to suit his own advantage and rides first to the king's mother, Donegild, greeting her with the best words he can manage. His route gives Donegild the opportunity to intercept the communication before it reaches the king, and the episode's political danger lies precisely in that small alteration of sequence: the message is diverted before its intended recipient can judge it.

Donegild then prepares a letter addressed to King Alla as though it came from the constable. Its false report concerns the child born to Constance, describing the infant as so horrible that the people within the castle are filled with dread. The forged account thus attacks Constance through the most vulnerable fact in her new life as queen and mother. It does not argue against her directly; instead, it invents a monstrous birth and presents fear as the supposed testimony of the castle community.

Alla's Grief and the Authority of Writing

King Alla receives the false report as genuine. Believing that Constance has borne a child unacceptable to the kingdom, he writes back in pain, placing his response within a Christian framework: he trusts that Christ will send him another heir more suited to his liking and fit to inherit his domain. The king seals the letter while weeping, and the messenger carries it away without delay.

The scene makes the forged letter powerful because it produces a real response. Donegild's fiction becomes the cause of authentic grief, and Alla's own handwriting can then be used against Constance. The letter is not simply a record of royal intention; it is an instrument that generates intention by controlling what the king believes. The emotional detail of the sealed document matters: the falsehood has passed through the king's sorrow and emerged bearing the outward marks of legitimate authority.

The Second Interception and the Expulsion Order

After Alla sleeps through the night, his letters are stolen again and replaced by further forgeries. The replacement text claims to be a command from the king to his constable, backed by the threat of hanging and framed as strict justice. It orders that Constance must not remain within King Alla's realm beyond three days. The language of punishment makes the fabricated order appear official, urgent, and unavoidable.

The command goes further than simple banishment. Constance and her young son are to be placed, with all their gear, in the same ship in which she had previously been found and pushed away from land. The repeated use of the ship turns exile into a recurrence rather than a single misfortune. Constance is not returned to safety after her marriage and conversion; the instrument of her earlier displacement is made into the vehicle of a second rejection, while the child who might have secured the family's future is expelled with her.

Public Sorrow and Constance's Departure

The forged letter produces a collective response among both young and old. The people weep throughout the place, believing that the cursed command has come from Alla. Their grief reveals how completely the written deception has occupied public consciousness: even those who pity Constance understand the event through the false document and therefore cannot prevent it. The community becomes a witness to injustice without recognizing its source.

Constance herself is described with a deathly pallid face as she approaches the ship, followed by the crowd. The physical pallor registers the extremity of the sentence before she speaks or acts. Yet her departure is not represented as rebellion. Taking her leave with holy intent, she crosses herself and enters the vessel. The ship has been provisioned, so the immediate material danger of hunger is addressed even while the deeper danger of renewed exile remains unresolved.

Consequences and Narrative Significance

Donegild's success depends on the convergence of three powers: the messenger's self-interest, the queen mother's access to royal communications, and the king's trust in letters that seem to come from his own officers. The event shows how authority can be counterfeit without looking counterfeit. A sealed message, a named official, a threat of execution, and the vocabulary of justice are enough to turn malice into policy.

For Constance, the expulsion reopens the pattern of shipwreck, displacement, and forced dependence that has marked her story. She is separated from Alla despite his apparent command, and her young son is carried into uncertainty with her. The crowd's tears and her crossing of herself place human political disorder beside steadfast religious purpose: the kingdom misreads its own law, while Constance answers exile through ritual faith. The episode therefore deepens the story's central contrast between visible authority and hidden truth. Donegild can control the letters, but the forged commands cannot permanently control the meaning of Constance's life or the eventual judgment of her actions.