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the pyre of denethor 1121
the bier to the main door of the Houses, they heard a great
cry that went up from the field before the Gate and rising
shrill and piercing into the sky passed, and died away on the
wind. So terrible was the cry that for a moment all stood still,
and yet when it had passed, suddenly their hearts were lifted
up in such a hope as they had not known since the darkness
came out of the East; and it seemed to them that the light
grew clear and the sun broke through the clouds.
But Gandalf ’s face was grave and sad, and bidding
Beregond and Pippin to take Faramir into the Houses of
Healing, he went up on to the walls nearby; and there like a
figure carven in white he stood in the new sun and looked
out. And he beheld with the sight that was given to him all that
had befallen; and when Éomer rode out from the forefront of
his battle and stood beside those who lay upon the field, he
sighed, and he cast his cloak about him again, and went from
the walls. And Beregond and Pippin found him standing in
thought before the door of the Houses when they came out.
They looked at him, and for a while he was silent. At last
he spoke. ‘My friends,’ he said, ‘and all you people of this
city and of the Western lands! Things of great sorrow and
renown have come to pass. Shall we weep or be glad? Beyond
hope the Captain of our foes has been destroyed, and you
have heard the echo of his last despair. But he has not gone
without woe and bitter loss. And that I might have averted
but for the madness of Denethor. So long has the reach of
our Enemy become! Alas! but now I perceive how his will
was able to enter into the very heart of the City.
‘Though the Stewards deemed that it was a secret kept
only by themselves, long ago I guessed that here in the White
Tower, one at least of the Seven Seeing Stones was preserved.
In the days of his wisdom Denethor would not presume to
use it to challenge Sauron, knowing the limits of his own
strength. But his wisdom failed; and I fear that as the peril of
his realm grew he looked in the Stone and was deceived: far
too often, I guess, since Boromir departed. He was too great