return

1056 the return of the king
in strange garments, all of black and silver. He had a small
hauberk, its rings forged of steel, maybe, yet black as jet; and
a high-crowned helm with small raven-wings on either side,
set with a silver star in the centre of the circlet. Above the
mail was a short surcoat of black, but broidered on the breast
in silver with the token of the Tree. His old clothes were
folded and put away, but he was permitted to keep the grey
cloak of Lórien, though not to wear it when on duty. He
looked now, had he known it, verily Ernil i Pheriannath, the
Prince of the Halflings, that folk had called him; but he felt
uncomfortable. And the gloom began to weigh on his spirits.
It was dark and dim all day. From the sunless dawn until
evening the heavy shadow had deepened, and all hearts in
the City were oppressed. Far above a great cloud streamed
slowly westward from the Black Land, devouring light, borne
upon a wind of war; but below the air was still and breathless,
as if all the Vale of Anduin waited for the onset of a ruinous
storm.
About the eleventh hour, released at last for a while from
service, Pippin came out and went in search of food and
drink to cheer his heavy heart and make his task of waiting
more supportable. In the messes he met Beregond again, who
had just come from an errand over the Pelennor out to the
Guard-towers upon the Causeway. Together they strolled
out to the walls; for Pippin felt imprisoned indoors, and stifled
even in the lofty citadel. Now they sat side by side again in
the embrasure looking eastward, where they had eaten and
talked the day before.
It was the sunset-hour, but the great pall had now stretched
far into the West, and only as it sank at last into the Sea did
the Sun escape to send out a brief farewell gleam before the
night, even as Frodo saw it at the Cross-roads touching the
head of the fallen king. But to the fields of the Pelennor,
under the shadow of Mindolluin, there came no gleam: they
were brown and drear.
Already it seemed years to Pippin since he had sat there