he looked at the great walls , and the towers and brave banners , and the sun in the high sky , and then at the gathering gloom in the east ; and he thought of the long fingers of that shadow : of the orcs in the woods and the mountains , the treason of isengard , the birds of evil eye , and the black riders even in the lanes of the shire c and of the winged terror , the nazganducirc ; l. he shuddered , and hope seemed to wither .