towers

694 the two towers
a year and a hundred of my kin and I would make this a
place that armies would break upon like water.’
‘I do not doubt it,’ said Legolas. ‘But you are a dwarf, and
dwarves are strange folk. I do not like this place, and I shall
like it no more by the light of day. But you comfort me,
Gimli, and I am glad to have you standing nigh with your
stout legs and your hard axe. I wish there were more of
your kin among us. But even more would I give for a hundred
good archers of Mirkwood. We shall need them. The
Rohirrim have good bowmen after their fashion, but there
are too few here, too few.’
‘It is dark for archery,’ said Gimli. ‘Indeed it is time for
sleep. Sleep! I feel the need of it, as never I thought any dwarf
could. Riding is tiring work. Yet my axe is restless in my
hand. Give me a row of orc-necks and room to swing and all
weariness will fall from me!’
A slow time passed. Far down in the valley scattered fires
still burned. The hosts of Isengard were advancing in silence
now. Their torches could be seen winding up the coomb in
many lines.
Suddenly from the Dike yells and screams, and the fierce
battle-cries of men broke out. Flaming brands appeared over
the brink and clustered thickly at the breach. Then they scattered
and vanished. Men came galloping back over the field
and up the ramp to the gate of the Hornburg. The rearguard
of the Westfolders had been driven in.
‘The enemy is at hand!’ they said. ‘We loosed every arrow
that we had, and filled the Dike with Orcs. But it will not halt
them long. Already they are scaling the bank at many points,
thick as marching ants. But we have taught them not to carry
torches.’
It was now past midnight. The sky was utterly dark, and
the stillness of the heavy air foreboded storm. Suddenly the
clouds were seared by a blinding flash. Branched lightning
smote down upon the eastward hills. For a staring moment