towers

flotsam and jetsam 745
everything like a great blanket all round us. The air seemed
hot and heavy; and it was full of rustlings, creakings, and a
murmur like voices passing. I think that hundreds more of
the Huorns must have been passing by to help in the battle.
Later there was a great rumble of thunder away south, and
flashes of lightning far away across Rohan. Every now and
then we could see mountain-peaks, miles and miles away,
stab out suddenly, black and white, and then vanish. And
behind us there were noises like thunder in hills, but different.
At times the whole valley echoed.
‘It must have been about midnight when the Ents broke
the dams and poured all the gathered waters through a gap
in the northern wall, down into Isengard. The Huorn-dark
had passed, and the thunder had rolled away. The Moon was
sinking behind the western mountains.
‘Isengard began to fill up with black creeping streams and
pools. They glittered in the last light of the Moon, as they
spread over the plain. Every now and then the waters found
their way down into some shaft or spouthole. Great white
steams hissed up. Smoke rose in billows. There were explosions
and gusts of fire. One great coil of vapour went
whirling up, twisting round and round Orthanc, until it
looked like a tall peak of cloud, fiery underneath and moonlit
above. And still more water poured in, until at last Isengard
looked like a huge flat saucepan, all steaming and bubbling.’
‘We saw a cloud of smoke and steam from the south last
night, when we came to the mouth of Nan Curunír,’ said
Aragorn. ‘We feared that Saruman was brewing some new
devilry for us.’
‘Not he!’ said Pippin. ‘He was probably choking and not
laughing any more. By the morning, yesterday morning, the
water had sunk down into all the holes, and there was a dense
fog. We took refuge in that guardroom over there; and we
had rather a fright. The lake began to overflow and pour out
through the old tunnel, and the water was rapidly rising up
the steps. We thought we were going to get caught like Orcs
in a hole; but we found a winding stair at the back of the