noon
And Ralph said to himself that this was naught but what he had looked for after that vision of the night . So he rode with his fellows somewhat shamefaced that they had seen that sudden madness in him ; but was presently of better cheer than he had been yet . He rode beside Clement ; they went downhill speedily , and the wilderness began to better , and there was grass at whiles , and bushes here and there . A little after noon they came out of a pass cleft deep through the rocks by a swift stream which had once been far greater than then , and climbed up a steep ridge that lay across the road , and looking down from the top of it , beheld the open country again . But this was otherwise from what they had beheld from the mountain 's brow above Cheaping Knowe . For thence the mountains beyond Whiteness , even those that they had just ridden , were clear to be seen like the wall of the plain country . But here , looking adown , the land below them seemed but a great spreading plain with no hills rising from it , save that far away they could see a certain break in it , and amidst that , something that was brighter than the face of the land elsewhere .