Yes it's a very stirring song, as it was meant to be.
It was written about Bonnie Prince Charlie of the House of Stuart.
He was born in Italy, but the Scots always regarded him as a Scottish Hero.
There were high hopes for him to become King and reverse the religious prejudice of the times, but it was not to be and after several unsuccessful Jacobite uprisings, and the bloodbath at Culloden, he had to go into hiding.
He was secretly spirited away by Flora MacDonald to the Western Isles, as in the song "Over the sea to Skye", then to Europe and finally Italy where after several affairs and years of alcoholism, he died.
So, not such a "Gallant Darling".