William then motioned for her to come and sit in his lap as he continued telling her the many things that were on his mind. “I always thought Edward could be thus be contented and leave us to our lives; for I knew that I led a good life, following a faithful course. That I loved my time with you and the children in our Douglasdale most as well. Then Edward entered Scotland with his army and our fair existence forever changed. I underestimated Edward’s anger and capacity for cruelty; the carnage at Berwick too great a shock to comprehend. And when I surrendered at Irvine, I knew it was the last time I could come to his peace without a battle first to fight. Then to arrive at this sad end? I blame myself each day for dismissing your good counsel; I should not have trusted de Percy with our lives and fate. My foolishness to thus believe my honest words would clear my name; free me from their false accusations,” he sighed.    

Ellie just looked at him and allowed his words to flow, sensing he had more to share with her; she felt mesmerized by his impassioned voice. Gilley continued. “Finding myself once more a prisoner at Edinburgh, then to be returned to Berwick I thus reacted savagely to my imprisonment. The collusion of your father and de Percy only amplified the desperate deeds of one Edward. And then this king, a man given so much by God; that he wasted so on personal greed was his eventual dishonor. This English lord so damaged by his selfish glory that he allowed his vassals to falsify my honor for their vengeance. So troubling to me,” William said as he paused again to take another breath; he prayed silently, that he might have the resolve to proceed. Then on and on he went, recounting things to Ellie, scanning his life, trying to make things right in her mind and in his. His words filled the hours that remained theirs. Eleanora listened to every syllable; knowing for her truth that the loving knight was her one and only love;  feeling him deep within her soul, that no other could replace him.

Too soon it seemed to Ellie Father John returned to the prison cell; then the others joined them for the final walk. One more embrace and William would leave, taken from her again, for the final time. His last act was to hand her the small box with his spectacles and a tiny parchment scroll. “Read this later Ellie,” he said. Then he was gone down the long corridor to his fate. Father John led her to a small room on the other side of the White Tower where she noticed the coffin for the first time, then William’s small wooden chest that contained the rest of his clothes and the small possessions he had kept in the tower cell. Lady Douglas sat alone and untied the little scroll; reading aloud the last verses of a poem written in Lallans: