French Prisoners. 251 



Another important matter bearing on this subject of looking 

 after the health of the prisoners was the declaration of the 

 French Commissioners in a letter to their Government in these 

 terms : — " The small number of sick in Scotland was truly 

 inconceivable. " (Le petit nombre des malades en Ecosse etait 

 vraiement inconcevable.) They were also impressed with the 

 small number of sick in England, but their eulogy in that case 

 was less pronounced. Out of a grand total of 65,731 prisoners 

 on 3rd May, 1814, the number of sick was 992, or 1.5 per cent., 

 a low rate when all things are considered. 



It took 49 vessels to convey the prisoners back from 

 Britain to France, and the cost of pilotage was £i8g 13s. 

 These vessels were of all kinds, line of battleships, frigates, 

 gunbrigs, cutters, luggers, sloops, gunboats, corvettes, etc. 

 They made an imposing procession. There was strangely 

 enough a false alarm that a storm had overtaken them and 

 done damage, but an official communication soothed Scottish 

 feeling, for it said — All the transports which departed from 

 Scotland have arrived safely. (Tous les transports qui sont 

 partis d' Ecosse ont fait heureusement leur voyage.) 



A final tribute may now be offered to the memory of those 

 paroled officers with whom our chief concern lies to-night. 

 Wherever they were stationed in Scotland, they made many 

 friends ; their superior culture and refinement were an educa- 

 tion to the community ; they formed a kind of outside world 

 brought in to criticise what was to them an alien section and to 

 point out with polite tact its imperfections ; but whether their 

 judgment ran counter or not to that of the people of the place, 

 due allowance was always made for their standpoint in viewing 

 men and morals ; and they left the different localities in the 

 early summer of 1814 when peace reigned, followed by the 

 warmest wishes of the entire community, who cherished 

 nothing but feelings of the greatest goodwill for those children 

 of the sun then in train to be restored to that not least of the 

 great gifts of God to man — Liberty ! 



Dumfries. 



Towards the end of November, 181 1, a detachment of 

 French officers arrived in Dumfries from Peebles. They set 



