Edwin perceived it, and yawning, complained of drowsiness.

"I would go to the top of that wall, and sleep sweetly in the moonbeams," said he, "if any goodnatured fellow would meanwhile wait for my pretty Scot!" The half-inebriated Southron liked no better sport, and regardless of duty, he promised to draw nearer the tower, and bring from the fair messenger the expected token.
Having thus far gained his point, with an apparently staggering, but really agile step, Edwin ascended the wall.

A leap from this dizzy height was his only way to rejoin Wallace.

To retread his steps through the fortress in safety would hardly be possible, and, besides, such a mode of retreat would leave him uninformed on the second object of his enterprise-to know the most vulnerable side of the fortress.

He threw himself along the summit of the wall as if to sleep.