But for sentiment there was no time, and every other emotion was either futile or premature.

So I mastered my full heart, I steeled, my wretched nerves, and braced my limp muscles for the task that lay before them.
I had a garden wall to scale, nearly twice my own height, and without notch or cranny in the ancient, solid masonry.

I stood against it on my toes, and I touched it with my finger-tips as high up as possible.

Some four feet severed them from the coping that left only half a sky above my upturned eyes.
I do not know whether I have made it plain that the house was not surrounded by four walls, but merely filled a breach in one of the four, which nipped it (as it were) at either end.

The back entrance was approachable enough, but barred or watched, I might be very sure.