It is somewhat curious that his death occurred on the
fifth anniversary of his great escape from the terrible rail- way accident of the 9th June, 1865, on the South-Eastern Railway. Of that accident Dickens wrote, "I remember with devout thankfulness that I can never be much nearer parting company with my readers for ever than I was then, until there shall be written against my life the two words with which I close this book, "Ile end.'" It is said that he had been so deeply im- pressed with the probability of a speedy end, as to have made liberal arrangements with his publishers in relation to that very contingency of his not completing "The Mystery of Edwin Drood " which has now happened. The greater part of the story appears, however, to be already in existence. The end of the book, as of the life, was already anticipated by him who had the deepest concern in it ; but it met his anticipation half-way.
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