ome food along, and from that
day till this it has been prepared in Strassburg and vicinity in large
quantities.--_Rome Correspondence of New York Sun._

Doomed to Live.

BY HONORE DE BALZAC.

The great fame of Honore de Balzac (1799-1850) will of
course always rest upon the wonderful series of novels which
he linked together in the scores of volumes which make up
his "Human Comedy." In this, with a genius which rivals that
of Shakespeare, he attempted to give a complete picture of
human society on all its sides--"to do for human nature what
has been done for zoology"--to demonstrate that society is a
unity in its composition diversified by evolution in
different directions. He called himself "the secretary of
society," and sought to write a history of manners, in which
he should shrink from nothing, and should range from virtue
and religion to the most frightful forms of vice and
passion.

Balzac's "Human Comedy," which Zola compared to a palace
reared by giants, is so often praised as to make one
sometimes lose sight of Balzac's supreme art in the
composition of short stories. Some of these, however, are
classics in themselves, and show the power of a master
exercised in his idle moments. The example here republished
is an excellent illustration of his ability to produce
within a small compass those effects of breathless interest,
suspense, and horror which he exhibits on a gigantic scale
in his novels.

The story entitled "Doomed to Live" shows admirably the
interplay of love and hatred, of military ferocity, of
filial affection, and of that haughty Spanish pride which
sacrifices the individual to the claims of high descent. The
story is said to have been founded upon fact--on one of the
extraordinary episodes which occurred during the time when
Napoleon's troops overran and dominated, but failed to
conquer, Spain.

The clock of the little town of Menda had just struck midnight. At this
moment a young French officer was leaning on the parapet of a long terrace
which bounded the gardens of the castle. He seemed plunged in the deepest
thought--a circumstance unusual amid the thoughtlessness of military life;
but it must be owned that never were the hour, the night, and the place
more propitious for meditation.

The beautiful Spanish sky stretched out its azure dome above his head