strength of the Scottish army based on all of its units being at full strength and claims to have "killed near four thousand" and captured 10,000 Scots. In Cromwell's letters he states that the day after the battle he released between 4,000 and 5,000 of the prisoners. Several modern secondary sources accept these figures; although others dismiss them, with Reid describing them as absurd. The Scottish annalist James Balfour recorded "8 or 900 killed". The English Royalist Edward Walker has 6,000 prisoners being taken and 1,000 of them being released. From Walker's account Reid calculates that fewer than 300 Scots were killed. Brooks uses the known number of Scots wounded, approximately 1,000, to estimate their dead at 300–500. All accounts agree that approximately 5,000 Scottish prisoners were marched south and that 4,000–5,000 Scots survived to retreat towards Edinburgh; over half of them formed bodies of infantry and the balance cavalry or stragglers. English casualties were low, with Cromwell variously giving them as "not twenty men" or 30–40 killed. The prisoners were taken to England and 3,000 were imprisoned at Durham Cathedral; many died on the march south, or in captivity. In September 2015 archaeologists announced that skeletons found in mass graves near Durham Cathedral were the remains of Scottish soldiers taken prisoner after the battle. The archaeological evidence appeared to show that the bodies had been tipped into a mass grave with no signs of ceremony. At least some of those who survived were deported to become indentured workers on English possessions overseas. Scottish response When the Scottish government learned of the defeat many people fled Edinburgh in panic, but Leslie sought to rally what remained of his army and build a new defensive line at Stirling, where he was joined by the bulk of the government, clergy and Edinburgh's mercantile elite. Cromwell dispatched Lambert to capture Edinburgh, while he marched on the port of Leith, which offered much better facilities for landing supplies and reinforcements than Dunbar. Without Leslie's army to defend them, both were captured with little difficulty. Cromwell took pains to persuade the citizens that his war was not with them; he promised that their property would be respected and allowed them to come and go freely, hold markets and observe their usual religious services, although the latter was restricted as most of the clergy had removed to Stirling. He also took steps to secure food for