And as early rising is not a popular virtue here, he resolved to steal a march on the defenders of Cloondadauv.
He had brought up certain large boats to Portumna, and put them on the lake.

Rousing his men before dawn, he soon had them all embarked, and on their way swiftly and silently by the river and the lake to Cloondadauv.
They reached the promontory by daybreak, and as soon as the hour of legal action had arrived they were landed, and surrounded the "castle." The ancient portal was found to be blocked with heavy stones and trunks of trees, nor did any adit appear to be available, till a young gentleman who had accompanied the party as a volunteer, discovered in one wall of the tower, at some little height from the ground, the vent of one of those conduits not infrequently found running down through the walls of old castles, which were used sometimes as waste-ways for rubbish from above, and sometimes to receive water-pipes from below.
Looking up into this vent, he saw a rope hanging free within it.

Upon this he hauled resolutely, and finding it firmly attached above, came to the conclusion that it must have been fixed there by the garrison as a means of access to the interior.
Like an adventurous young tar, he bade his comrades stand by, and nimbly "swarmed" up the rope, without thought or care of what might await him at the top.

In a few moments his shouts from above proclaimed the capture of the stronghold.

It was absolutely deserted; the garrison, confident that no attack would that day be made, had gone off to the nearest village.