The bishop of Meath to Lord Burghley, 22 October 1591 (Extract),

I privately dealt with her (Mabel) and by way of examination demanded of her whether she had before that time plighted her troth and given her promise to the earl to marry him. She answered me that she had made promise to the earl and had bethrothed herself to him about three weeks before that time. And further she told me that upon that promise she received from the earl a token worth a hundred pounds, which since I have learned was a chain of gold. Secondly, I demanded of her whether the manner of her coming away from Sir Patrick Barnewall’s house was a thing done and agreed upon with her own consent. She told me that she had given her free consent thereunto, and accordingly was come away with the earl, adding this, that unless she had agreed to that device and the manner of her escape (as she termed it) it had never been attempted. I demanded of her one question more, viz., whether she were now resolved to take the earl to be her husband and to be married unto him. The gentlewoman answered me in this manner: “My lord, you see in what case I am, how I come hither with my own consent, and have already promised my lord the earl to be his wife. I beseech your lordship therefore for my credit’s sake to perfect the marriage between us, the sooner the better for my credit’s sake.”

     Whereupon seeing the young gentlewoman in that place where she was neither mistress of herself or of her affections, and knowing that all ordinary means had been used and wrought to procure her friends’ consent, I resolved chiefly in regard of the danger wherein the gentlewoman’s credit and chastity stood, to perfect that knot which themselves before had knit, and did accordingly at the same place, being at an honest English gentleman’s house, celebrate that marriage, whether well or evil, whether justly or unadvisedly, I leave it to your lordship’s most grave and discreet censure.

Quoted in C.P.Meehan, The Fate and Fortunes of Hugh O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone, and Rory O’Donel, Earl of Tyrconnell, their flight from Ireland and their death in exile, (3^rd ed., Dublin, 1886),  pp 297-300,