vibrant, alterutro certant, et veluti carnifices boves in macello,
sic inconsternate ad invicem se trucidant. Sed nec inter tantos
repertus est vel unus, qui, tanquam vecors ant timidus, sive post
tergum alterius declinans, seipsum a tanta caede praetendit excusare.
Iste tamen tyro superveniens finaliter illaesus exivit; et dehinc
multo tempore Boreas quievit, nec ibidem fuit, ut supra, cateranorum
excursus.

The scene is heightened with many florid additions by Boece and
Leslie, and the contending savages in Buchanan utter speeches after
the most approved pattern of Livy.

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!"

Nay, the feeling could outlive generations. The late much
lamented General Stewart of Garth, in his account of the battle of
Killiecrankie, informs us that Lochiel was attended on the field
by the son of his foster brother.

"This faithful adherent followed him like his shadow, ready to
assist him with his sword, or cover him from the shot of the enemy.
Suddenly the chief missed his friend from his side, and, turning