At the celebration following the wedding ceremony, the evil conspirators of the Sultan’s mother sweep down on the Christians and kill them all, including the young Sultan. Lady Constance escapes death and is placed on a well-provisioned ship and cast upon the sea. After “a year and a day” of roaming the sea, the ship lands in the northern isle of Northumberland, where a constable and his wife find Constance and take her in. Because Northumberland is a pagan land, Constance keeps her faith a secret. Soon, however, the constable’s wife, Hermengild, becomes a Christian, and, when the constable observes Hermengild and Constance performing a miracle, he becomes a Christian.
A young knight sees Constance and is filled with lustful desires. Spurned and manipulated by Satan, the knight slits Hermengild’s throat and leaves the murder weapon in Constance’s bed. The constable takes Constance before the king, Alla, who rules with a wise and firm hand. The king sentences Constance to death but makes the knight swear on holy books that she is guilty. The moment the knight swears to her guilt, he is stricken dead, and a voice saying that the king has unjustly judged a disciple of Christ is heard.
Awe-stricken, the pagans convert to Christianity. Soon, King Alla and Constance fall in love and are married. While the king is away at war, Constance gives birth to a beautiful son. But the king’s mother, Donegild, an evil and vicious woman, intercepts and replaces the message bearing the happy news with letters of her own, saying that the king’s son was born deformed. In his response, King Alla says he will accept the child, but Donegild intercepts that message as well and writes a false one saying that the king’s will is to the have the child destroyed. Horrified, Constance sails away with her son. Upon his return, King Alla discovers the falsified messages and, grief-stricken at the loss of is wife and son, has Donegild executed.
