"And yet by that side you suppose we must ascend?" said Wallace.
"Certainly; for if you attempt it on the west, we should have to scale
the watch-tower cliff, and the ascent could only be gained in file. An
auxiliary detachment, to attack in flank, might succeed there; but the
passage being so narrow, would be too tedious for the whole party to
arrive in time. Should we take the south, we must cut through the whole
garrison before we could reach the earl. And on this side, the morass
lies too near the foot of the rock to admit an approach without the
greatest danger. But on the north, where I descended, by wading
through part of the Leven, and climbing from cliff to cliff, I have
every hope you may succeed."
Edwin recounted the particulars of his progress through the fortress;
and by the minuteness of his topographical descriptions, enforced his
arguments for the north to be the point assailed. Closing his
narrative, he explained to the anxious inquiry of Wallace how he had
escaped accident in a leap of so many feet. The wall was covered with
ivy; he caught by its branches in his descent, and at last happily fell
amongst a thick bed of furze.
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