towers

738 the two towers
‘Then all at once there was a tremendous stir. Trumpets
blared, and the walls of Isengard echoed. We thought that
we had been discovered, and that battle was going to begin.
But nothing of the sort. All Saruman’s people were marching
away. I don’t know much about this war, or about the Horsemen
of Rohan, but Saruman seems to have meant to finish
off the king and all his men with one final blow. He emptied
Isengard. I saw the enemy go: endless lines of marching Orcs;
and troops of them mounted on great wolves. And there were
battalions of Men, too. Many of them carried torches, and in
the flare I could see their faces. Most of them were ordinary
men, rather tall and dark-haired, and grim but not particularly
evil-looking. But there were some others that were horrible:
man-high, but with goblin-faces, sallow, leering, squint-eyed.
Do you know, they reminded me at once of that Southerner
at Bree; only he was not so obviously orc-like as most of these
were.’
‘I thought of him too,’ said Aragorn. ‘We had many of
these half-orcs to deal with at Helm’s Deep. It seems plain
now that that Southerner was a spy of Saruman’s; but
whether he was working with the Black Riders, or for
Saruman alone, I do not know. It is difficult with these evil
folk to know when they are in league, and when they are
cheating one another.’
‘Well, of all sorts together, there must have been ten thousand
at the very least,’ said Merry. ‘They took an hour to
pass out of the gates. Some went off down the highway to
the Fords, and some turned away and went eastward. A
bridge has been built down there, about a mile away, where
the river runs in a very deep channel. You could see it now,
if you stood up. They were all singing with harsh voices, and
laughing, making a hideous din. I thought things looked very
black for Rohan. But Treebeard did not move. He said: ‘‘My
business is with Isengard tonight, with rock and stone.’’
‘But, though I could not see what was happening in the
dark, I believe that Huorns began to move south, as soon as
the gates were shut again. Their business was with Orcs I