return

1148 the return of the king
yet it was but the morn of the day ere yesterday, the sixth
since we rode from Dunharrow. But still Aragorn was driven
by fear that time was too short.
‘ ‘‘It is forty leagues and two from Pelargir to the landings
at the Harlond,’’ he said. ‘‘Yet to the Harlond we must come
tomorrow or fail utterly.’’
‘The oars were now wielded by free men, and manfully
they laboured; yet slowly we passed up the Great River, for
we strove against its stream, and though that is not swift
down in the South, we had no help of wind. Heavy would
my heart have been, for all our victory at the havens, if
Legolas had not laughed suddenly.
‘ ‘‘Up with your beard, Durin’s son!’’ he said. ‘‘For thus is
it spoken: Oft hope is born, when all is forlorn.’’ But what hope
he saw from afar he would not tell. When night came it did
but deepen the darkness, and our hearts were hot, for away
in the North we saw a red glow under the cloud, and Aragorn
said: ‘‘Minas Tirith is burning.’’
‘But at midnight hope was indeed born anew. Sea-crafty
men of the Ethir gazing southward spoke of a change coming
with a fresh wind from the Sea. Long ere day the masted
ships hoisted sail, and our speed grew, until dawn whitened
the foam at our prows. And so it was, as you know, that we
came in the third hour of the morning with a fair wind and
the Sun unveiled, and we unfurled the great standard in
battle. It was a great day and a great hour, whatever may
come after.’
‘Follow what may, great deeds are not lessened in worth,’
said Legolas. ‘Great deed was the riding of the Paths of the
Dead, and great it shall remain, though none be left in
Gondor to sing of it in the days that are to come.’
‘And that may well befall,’ said Gimli. ‘For the faces of
Aragorn and Gandalf are grave. Much I wonder what counsels
they are taking in the tents there below. For my part, like
Merry, I wish that with our victory the war was now over.
Yet whatever is still to do, I hope to have a part in it, for the
honour of the folk of the Lonely Mountain.’