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the siege of gondor 1061
easily than I do, he must attend on his lord again within this
hour. Come, Pippin, follow us!’
So at length they came to the private chamber of the Lord
of the City. There deep seats were set about a brazier of
charcoal; and wine was brought; and there Pippin, hardly
noticed, stood behind the chair of Denethor and felt his
weariness little, so eagerly did he listen to all that was said.
When Faramir had taken white bread and drunk a draught
of wine, he sat upon a low chair at his father’s left hand.
Removed a little upon the other side sat Gandalf in a chair
of carven wood; and he seemed at first to be asleep. For at
the beginning Faramir spoke only of the errand upon which
he had been sent out ten days before, and he brought tidings
of Ithilien and of movements of the Enemy and his allies; and
he told of the fight on the road when the men of Harad and
their great beast were overthrown: a captain reporting to his
master such matters as had often been heard before, small
things of border-war that now seemed useless and petty,
shorn of their renown.
Then suddenly Faramir looked at Pippin. ‘But now we
come to strange matters,’ he said. ‘For this is not the first
halfling that I have seen walking out of northern legends into
the Southlands.’
At that Gandalf sat up and gripped the arms of his chair;
but he said nothing, and with a look stopped the exclamation
on Pippin’s lips. Denethor looked at their faces and nodded
his head, as though in sign that he had read much there
before it was spoken. Slowly, while the others sat silent and
still, Faramir told his tale, with his eyes for the most part on
Gandalf, though now and again his glance strayed to Pippin,
as if to refresh his memory of others that he had seen.
As his story was unfolded of his meeting with Frodo and
his servant and of the events at Henneth Annûn, Pippin
became aware that Gandalf ’s hands were trembling as they
clutched the carven wood. White they seemed now and very
old, and as he looked at them, suddenly with a thrill of fear