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.Thewise he could persuade, and the smaller folk he could daunt.That power hecertainly still keeps.There are not many in Middle-earth that I should saywere safe, if they were left alone to talk with him, even now when he hassuffered a defeat.Gandalf, Elrond, and Galadriel, perhaps, now that hiswickedness has been laid bare, but very few others.' 'The Ents are safe,' said Pippin.'Heseems at one time to have got round them, but never again.And anyway he didnot understand them; and he made the great mistake of leaving them out of hiscalculations.He had no plan for them, and there was no time to make any, oncethey had set to work.As soon as our attack began, the few remaining rats inIsengard started bolting through every hole that the Ents made.The Ents letthe Men go, after they had questioned them, two or three dozen only down atthis end.I don't think many orc-folk, of any size, escaped.Not from theHuorns: there was a wood full of them all round Isengard by that time, as wellas those that had gone down the valley. 'When the Ents had reduced a large partof the southern walls to rubbish, and what was left of his people had boltedand deserted him, Saruman fled in a panic.He seems to have been at the gateswhen we arrived: I expect he came to watch his splendid army march out.When theEnts broke their way in, he left in a hurry.They did not spot him at first.But the night had opened out, and there was a great light of stars, quiteenough for Ents to see by, and suddenly Quickbeam gave a cry "Thetree-killer, the tree-killer!" Quickbeam is a gentle creature, but hehates Saruman all the more fiercely for that: his people suffered cruelly fromorc-axes.He leapt down the path from the inner gate, and he can move like awind when he is roused.There was a pale figure hurrying away in and out of theshadows of the pillars, and it had nearly reached the stairs to the tower-door.But it was a near thing.Quickbeam was so hot after him, that he was within astep or two of being caught and strangled when he slipped in through the door. 'When Saruman was safe back in Orthanc,it was not long before he set some of his precious machinery to work.By thattime there were many Ents inside Isengard: some had followed Quickbeam, andothers had burst in from the north and east; they were roaming about and doinga great deal of damage.Suddenly up came fires and foul fumes: the vents andshafts all over the plain began to spout and belch.Several of the Ents gotscorched and blistered.One of them, Beechbone I think he was called, a verytall handsome Ent, got caught in a spray of some liquid fire and burned like atorch: a horrible sight. 'That sent them mad.I thought that theyhad been really roused before; but I was wrong.I saw what it was like at last.It was staggering.They roared and boomed and trumpeted, until stones began tocrack and fall at the mere noise of them.Merry and I lay on the ground andstuffed our cloaks into our ears.Round and round the rock of Orthanc the Entswent striding and storming like a howling gale, breaking pillars, hurlingavalanches of boulders down the shafts, tossing up huge slabs of stone into theair like leaves.The tower was in the middle of a spinning whirlwind.I sawiron posts and blocks of masonry go rocketing up hundreds of feet, and smashagainst the windows of Orthanc.But Treebeard kept his head.He had not had anyburns, luckily.He did not want his folk to hurt themselves in their fury, andhe did not want Saruman to escape out of some hole in the confusion.Many ofthe Ents were hurling themselves against the Orthanc-rock; but that defeatedthem.It is very smooth and hard.Some wizardry is in it, perhaps, older andstronger than Saruman's.Anyway they could not get a grip on it, or make acrack in it; and they were bruising and wounding themselves against it.'SoTreebeard went out into the ring and shouted.His enormous voice rose above allthe din.There was a dead silence, suddenly.In it we heard a shrill laugh froma high window in the tower.That had a queer effect on the Ents.They had beenboiling over; now they became cold, grim as ice, and quiet.They left the plainand gathered round Treebeard, standing quite still.He spoke to them for alittle in their own language; I think he was telling them of a plan he had madein his old head long before.Then they just faded silently away in the greylight.Day was dawning by that time. 'They set a watch on the tower, Ibelieve, but the watchers were so well hidden in shadows and kept so still,that I could not see them.The others went away north.All that day they werebusy, out of sight.Most of the time we were left alone.It was a dreary day;and we wandered about a bit, though we kept out of the view of the windows ofOrthanc, as much as we could: they stared at us so threateningly.A good dealof the time we spent looking for something to eat.And also we sat and talked,wondering what was happening away south in Rohan, and what had become of allthe rest of our Company.Every now and then we could hear in the distance therattle and fall of stone, and thudding noises echoing in the hills. 'In the afternoon we walked round thecircle, and went to have a look at what was going on.There was a great shadowywood of Huorns at the head of the valley, and another round the northern wall.We did not dare to go in.But there was a rending, tearing noise of work goingon inside.Ents and Huorns were digging great pits and trenches, and makinggreat pools and dams, gathering all the waters of the Isen and every otherspring and stream that they could find.We left them to it. 'At dusk Treebeard came back to the gate.He was humming and booming to himself, and seemed pleased.He stood andstretched his great arms and legs and breathed deep.I asked him if he wastired. ' "Tired?" he said,"tired? Well no, not tired, but stiff.I need a good draught of Entwash.We have worked hard; we have done more stone-cracking and earth-gnawing todaythan we have done in many a long year before.But it is nearly finished.When nightfalls do not linger near this gate or in the old tunnel! Water may comethrough-and it will be foul water for a while, until all the filth of Sarumanis washed away.Then Isen can run clean again." He began to pull down abit more of the walls, in a leisurely sort of way, just to amuse himself. 'We were just wondering where it would besafe to lie and get some sleep, when the most amazing thing of all happened.There was the sound of a rider coming swiftly up the road.Merry and I layquiet, and Treebeard hid himself in the shadows under the arch.Suddenly agreat horse came striding up, like a flash of silver.It was already dark.butI could see the rider's face clearly: it seemed to shine, and all his clotheswere white.I just sat up, staring, with my mouth open.I tried to call out,and couldn't. 'There was no need.He halted just by usand looked down at us.'Gandalf!' I said at last.but my voice was only awhisper.Did he say: "Hullo, Pippin! This is a pleasant surprise!"?No, indeed! He said: "Get up, you tom-fool of a Took! Where, in the nameof wonder, in all this ruin is Treebeard? I want him.Quick!" 'Treebeard heard his voice and came outof the shadows at once; and there was a strange meeting.I was surprised,because neither of them seemed surprised at all.Gandalf obviously expected tofind Treebeard here; and Treebeard might almost have been loitering about nearthe gates on purpose to meet him.Yet we had told the old Ent all about Moria.But then I remembered a queer look he gave us at the time.I can only supposethat he had seen Gandalf or had some news of him, but would not say anything ina hurry."Don't be hasty" is his motto; but nobody, not even Elves,will say much about Gandalf's movements when he is not there
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