Battle of Inverkeithing

‘The devotion of the young chief of Clan Quhele's foster father and foster brethren in the novel is a trait of clannish fidelity, of which Highland story furnishes many examples. In the battle of Inverkeithing, between the Royalists and Oliver Cromwell's troops, a foster father and seven brave sons are known to have thus sacrificed themselves for Sir Hector Maclean of Duart; the old man, whenever one of his boys fell, thrusting forward another to fill his place at the right hand of the beloved chief, with the very words adopted in the novel, "Another for Hector!"…’

The Battle of Inverkeithing was fought on July 20, 1651, with Covenanting forces fighting in support of Charles II, against the Parliamentarian army.  Cromwell’s forces won the day, providing a strategic advantage in the last of the English Civil Wars.  Sir Walter Scott’s observation above is taken from the preface to “The Fair Maid of Perth”.