accessing XML node with a dynamic path variable

[pstroot]

I'm loading an XML file into flash, and as I parse through the XML, I'm saving the path's to the XML nodes for later reference and updating, but I'm having a problem when I try to access dynamically.

Here's a super simplified example of what isn't working for me. If I can resolve this, I think I can take it from there.

I CAN access an attribute in a node if I hard code the path like this

trace (_root.myXML.childNodes[0].childNodes[1].attributes["width"])

but I want to access the attribute value using a variable name as the path. Here's what I tried (which didn't work).

NodePath = "_root.myXML.childNodes[0].childNodes[1]"                    
trace (eval(NodePath).attributes["width"])

[pstroot]

to put it another way, this works:

trace (_root.myXML.childNodes[0].childNodes[1].attributes["width"]

but this doesn't:

NodePath = "_root.myXML.childNodes[0].childNodes[1].attributes[\"width\"]"  
                  
trace (NodePath)
// or
trace (eval(NodePath))

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.