Dwelling near the portals of the House......

Among idle men there be some who tarry in the outer courts, spending the days joyfully with dance and song.   But the other sort dwell near the portals of the House, and are ever anxious and ill at ease that they may see something of the Shadows which come and go.    Wherefore night and day they are found watching by the threshold in fearfulness and joy, not without tears.......

attributed to Donisarius, a monk of Padua, 1310.

(Although in essence a literary device of John Buchan's)