This is an early work by Pettie, painted before he went to London in 1862. It is not based on any known text, but may have been inspired by a description of Roundhead troops in Sir Walter Scott's novel ‘Woodstock’ that was set just after the English Civil War. Pettie had a passion for depicting highly coloured characters, and had a cartoonist's ability to select an evocative and telling silhouette or gesture. The ‘saint’ on the right is the artist Samuel Bough, a friend and fellow member of the Artists’ Company of the Scottish Volunteer Regiments.