return

1060 the return of the king
Presently Pippin saw torches, and followed by a press of
people two horsemen riding slowly: one was in white but
shining no longer, pale in the twilight as if his fire was spent
or veiled; the other was dark and his head was bowed. They
dismounted, and as grooms took Shadowfax and the other
horse, they walked forward to the sentinel at the gate: Gandalf
steadily, his grey cloak flung back, and a fire still smouldering
in his eyes; the other, clad all in green, slowly, swaying a little
as a weary or a wounded man.
Pippin pressed forward as they passed under the lamp
beneath the gate-arch, and when he saw the pale face of
Faramir he caught his breath. It was the face of one who has
been assailed by a great fear or anguish, but has mastered it
and now is quiet. Proud and grave he stood for a moment as
he spoke to the guard, and Pippin gazing at him saw how
closely he resembled his brother Boromir – whom Pippin had
liked from the first, admiring the great man’s lordly but kindly
manner. Yet suddenly for Faramir his heart was strangely
moved with a feeling that he had not known before. Here
was one with an air of high nobility such as Aragorn at times
revealed, less high perhaps, yet also less incalculable and
remote: one of the Kings of Men born into a later time, but
touched with the wisdom and sadness of the Elder Race. He
knew now why Beregond spoke his name with love. He was
a captain that men would follow, that he would follow, even
under the shadow of the black wings.
‘Faramir!’ he cried aloud with the others. ‘Faramir!’ And
Faramir, catching his strange voice among the clamour of the
men of the City, turned and looked down at him and was
amazed.
‘Whence come you?’ he said. ‘A halfling, and in the livery
of the Tower! Whence...?’
But with that Gandalf stepped to his side and spoke. ‘He
came with me from the land of the Halflings,’ he said.
‘He came with me. But let us not tarry here. There is much
to say and to do, and you are weary. He shall come with us.
Indeed he must, for if he does not forget his new duties more