The new captain made little impression.
Come athelas
Life to the dying
In the king’s hand lying
There was a new captain, the Lady Finduilas heard, but face-to-face he made little impression: another grim-faced silent man like all those who encircled her.
Then he took her hand-
A great man pierced with arrows lying in a coffin-boat slipping down the river. Fire in the city and fire in the veins of a young man burning on a sick-bed. And her lord, her lord - as strong as the stone of this stern city - with tears upon his broken face-
“Oh come,” she whispered. “Come.”
He became quite the favourite. And when he left, she knew hope had departed.