Captain Cuellar describes the stronghold thus: “The castle is very strong, and very difficult to take if they do not (even though they should) attack it with artillery, for it is founded in a lake of very deep water which is more than a league wide at some parts, and three or four leagues long, and has an outlet to the sea; and, besides, with the rise of spring tides it is not possible to enter it, for which reason the castle could not be taken by water nor by the shore of the land that is nearest to it. Neither could injury be done it, because (for) a league round the town, which is established on the mainland, it is marshy, breast-deep, so that even the inhabitants (natives) could not get to it except by paths.” As the Spanish captain never mentions the name of the fortress, its identification with Rossclogher has been called in question, chiefly because the measurements are much greater than those of Lough Melvin (a league equalling 3·66 miles), but all the distances in the narrative are greatly overstated. Again, Lough Melvin has not been open to the sea within the historic period. A map, however, of 1609 in the British Museum represents the river which drains it as being nearly as wide as the Erne, and we do not read that Cuellar personally explored its outlet. In all other matters the castle accurately answers to his description, and no other building has ever been put forward as the probable scene of the siege. When the Lord Deputy appeared upon the shore (with, Cuellar says, one thousand eight hundred men) he could not get nearer than a mile and a half on account of the marshy ground. From this it would seem that he arrived at the point of Rossfriar on the north-west shore of the lough. He then hanged two Spaniards as a warning, and demanded by a trumpeter the surrender of the castle, promising the garrison a free pass to Spain. This they pretended not to understand. The siege lasted seventeen days, when a great snowstorm obliged the Deputy to return south. Upon this episode the State Papers are silent; the Lord Deputy merely giving the following account of his northern expedition. “First, therefore, it may please your lordships, I undertook the journey the 4th November, and finished the same the 23rd of this instant, December, being seven weeks and one day, returning without loss of any one of Her Majesty’s army.” When the English forces had retired MacClancy returned in great delight and fêted the Spaniards. He offered his sister to Cuellar in marriage, but this was declined. The chief decided to keep the foreigners as his guard, by force if necessary, but they hearing this left secretly. After much hardship Cuellar eventually crossed to Scotland from Dunluce, and from thence to Antwerp.