_Scotch Prisoners at Worcester_ (Vol. ii., p. 297.).--I cannot think that
the extract from the accounts of the churchwardens of St. Margaret's,
Westminster, at all justifies C.F.S. in supposing that the Scotch prisoners
were massacred in cold blood. The total number of these prisoners was
10,000. Of the 1,200 who were buried, the greater part most probably died
of their wounds; and though this number is large, yet we must bear in mind
that in those days the sick and wounded were not tended with the care and
attention which are now displayed in such cases. We learn from the
_Parliamentary History_ (xx. 58.), that on the 17th Sep. 1651, "the Scots
prisoners were brought to London, and marched through the city into
Tothill-fields." The same work (xx. 72.) states that "Most of the common
soldiers were sent to the English Plantations; and 1500 of them were
granted to the Guiney merchants and sent to work in the Gold mines there."
Large numbers were also employed in draining the great level of the Fens
(Wells, _History of the Bedford Level_, i. 228-244.). Lord Clarendon (book
xiii.) says, "Many perished for want of food, and, being enclosed in little
room till they were sold to the plantations for slaves, they died of all
diseases."