[Encaitare]

There Denethor sat in a grey gloom, like an old patient spider, Pippin thought; he did not seem to have moved since the day before.

Interesting comparison; Tolkien's portrayal of spiders has always been a negative one -- Shelob, Ungoliant, the spiders in Mirkwood -- and Ungoliant was called the Gloomweaver. Denethor is starting to deteriorate and fall victim to the shadows.

"And why should such songs be unfit for my halls, or for such hours as these? We who have lived long under the Shadow may surely listen to echoes from a land untroubled by it? Then we may feel that our vigil was not fruitless, though it may have been thankless." (Denethor)

Ouch.

"Treachery, treachery I fear; treachery of that miserable creature. But so it must be. Let us remember that a traitor may betray himself, and do good that he does not intend." (Gandalf)

This got me thinking. The traitors in LotR show themselves to be hardly comfortable with themselves and their deeds, and do actually "do good that [they do] not intend". Such was the case with Grima and the Palantir, and such will be the case with Gollum.

Denethor's words to Faramir in this chapter are, in a word, terrible! I saw the movie of RotK with a friend who had not read the book, and when she heard Denethor say that he wished Faramir had died instead of Boromir, she gasped aloud. And she was right -- what a horrible thing to say! And "That depends on the manner of your return" is just as bad.

Gandalf makes an important (and true) prediction:

"You [Faramir] will be needed here, for other things than war."

It's also good to see that unlike his movie character, Denethor is actually doing something:

And then a trumpet rang from the Citadel, and Denethor at last released the sortie. Drawn up within the shadow of the Gate and under the looming walls outside they had waited for his signal...

The cavalry rode on. But Denethor did not permit them to go far. Though the enemy was checked, and for the moment driven back, great forces were flowing in from the East. Again the trumpet rang, sounding the retreat.

It is only after Faramir is wounded that he abandons all hope.

Then the Black Captain rose in his stirrups and cried aloud in a dreadful voice, speaking in some forgotten tongue words of power and terror to rend both heart and stone.

Neat trick. I love these little unknowns that keep things mysterious.