On the eighth of February, 1608, the weather became somewhat damp and wet. A certain amount of thaw set in in the small rivers, though the ice of the large ones did not break. On the river which comes to Louvain there was a small branch going round the outside of the walls near the two palaces where the lords were. There was an exceedingly small streamlet entering this branch and flowing from a garden between the two palaces. A certain man of the Earl's people, who was going with some message to the palace where Ó Néill was, saw a very large salmon in a small hole in a plank on the stream. He drew a weapon at once and killed the salmon. He brought it to the Earl, and came then to Ó Néill's presence. All the nobles of the city who were near them came to see the salmon. They were surprised at his size, and that he was got where he was found. They said they never saw during their lives, and never heard from those who lived before them, that a salmon was ever before got on the river of Louvain, or on that particular branch of it.