down a part of the wall ten yards in length, under which Charles Dryden
lay buried. He was immediately dug out, and after six weeks languishing
in a dangerous way he recovered; so far Dryden's prediction was
fulfilled: In the twenty-third year of his age, Charles fell from the
top of an old tower belonging to the Vatican at Rome, occasioned by a
swimming in his head, with which he was seized, the heat of the day
being excessive. He again recovered, but was ever after in a languishing
sickly state. In the thirty-third year of his age, being returned to
England, he was unhappily drowned at Windsor. He had with another
gentleman swam twice over the Thames; but returning a third time, it was
supposed he was taken with the cramp, because he called out for help,
tho' too late. Thus the father's calculation proved but too prophetical.

Mr. Dryden died the first of May 1701, and was interred in Westminster
Abby. On the 19th of April he had been very bad with the gout, and
erisipelas in one leg; but he was then somewhat recovered, and designed
to go abroad; on the Friday following he eat a partridge for his supper,
and going to take a turn in the little garden behind his house in
Gerard-street, he was seized with a violent pain under the ball of the
great toe of his right foot; that, unable to stand, he cried out
for help, and was carried in by his servants, when upon sending for
surgeons, they found a small black spot in the place affected; he
submitted to their present applications, and when gone called his
son Charles to him, using these words. 'I know this black spot is a
mortification: I know also, that it will seize my head, and that they
will attempt to cut off my leg; but I command you my son, by your filial
duty, that you do not suffer me to be dismembered:' As he foretold,
the event proved, and his son was too dutiful to disobey his father's
commands.