attempted to make a shield of it; but Constantine only pressed him the
harder, and drove him from side to side, crying, "Ya, hupp!" like the
ring-master of a circus. At last the victim succeeded in reaching the
bell-rope: the "famulus" came, and Constantine was thrown into the
darkest "carcer."

For four weeks he had to languish here. When Ivo went to see him, he
confessed that it was sinful to wreak his ill-will against the law upon
its innocent administrator. Ivo said, justly, "It is doubly sinful.
These old folks are the jailers who watch us; but they are in the
prison themselves and worse off than we: the key to let them out is
lost."

"Yes," said Constantine, laughing. "You know the old rhyme says,--

'England is lock'd,
And the key-hole is block'd;'--

and so I've gone to work and staved in one of the walls."

Constantine was expelled from the convent in disgrace.

When Ivo came home at Easter, Constantine gave him a hand in which
three fingers were tied up. He had greatly distinguished himself in a
row between the Nordstetters and Baisingers, which dated from the feud
of the manor-house farmer, and a bottle had been shivered in his hand.
The "college chap," as he was called, had already taken rank as the
wildest scapegrace in the village. He had assumed the peasant-garb, and
took a pleasure in divesting himself of every lingering trace of higher
cultivation. With his two comrades--George's son Peter, and Florian,
the son of a broken-down butcher--he played the wildest pranks: the
three were always in league, and never admitted a fourth to fellowship
with them. The behavior of Constantine toward Peter was particularly
interesting. A mother's eye does not watch with more solicitude over
the welfare of an ailing child--a gentle wife is not more submissive to
a petulant husband--than Constantine was to Peter: he even suppressed
his liking for George the saddler's Magdalene because he found Peter in
love with her, and did every thing in his power to aid him. When
Constantine was furious and apparently beyond all pacifying, Peter had
but to say, "Please me, Constantine, and be quiet," and he was as tame
and docile as a lamb.

Ivo had some difficulty in getting rid of Constantine; but at last he
succeeded. He was quiet and serious: Constantine's wildest sallies
failed to win a smile from him, and at last he gave himself no more
trouble about the "psalm-singer."

On his return