In Chapter Eighteen, Alasdair arrives with the news that Prince Charles has landed in Scotland with just seven men. As foolhardy as this sounds, it's true. He actually set out with two ships. One was the Doutelle, in which he travelled with his seven men: four Irishmen, two Scots and an Englishman. Three of them were elderly men, and only one of them would play an important role in the rebellion – Colonel John William O'Sullivan. The other ship was the Elizabeth, which had 700 soldiers on board, as well as 1500 muskets with ammunition and 1800 broadswords. Unfortunately they were intercepted by an English warship, and a battle ensued in which the Elizabeth sustained heavy damage, and had to return to France. Consequently, Prince Charles did land in Scotland with just seven men, although he was not daunted by this.
And finally, also in Chapter Eighteen, I wanted to point out that The Sofa – A Moral Tale, was in fact a real book, and the quotation Alex reads out is taken directly from the book. It was published in France in 1742, and was by Claude Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon. It was a libertine tale, and a lot of the characters were satirical portraits of Parisians of the time – including King Louis XV. The author was temporarily exiled from Paris after its publication, due to this. It was translated into English the same year, so it's conceivable that Beth would have had a copy.