d of lizard with a vertebra more than
lizards usually have, and he immediately laid his discovery before the
Institute. The thing was discussed for a long time, but finally decided
in his favor. I can assure you the vertebra made a great noise in the
learned world, and the gentleman, who was only a knight of the Legion of
Honor, was made an officer."

"Come," said Monte Cristo, "this cross seems to me to be wisely awarded.
I suppose, had he found another additional vertebra, they would have
made him a commander."

"Very likely," said Albert.

"And who can that person be who has taken it into his head to wrap
himself up in a blue coat embroidered with green?"

"Oh, that coat is not his own idea; it is the Republic's, which deputed
David [*] to devise a uniform for the Academicians."

* Louis David, a famous French painter.

"Indeed?" said Monte Cristo; "so this gentleman is an Academician?"

"Within the last week he has been made one of the learned assembly."

"And what is his especial talent?"

"His talent? I believe he thrusts pins through the heads of rabbits, he
makes fowls eat madder, and punches the spinal marrow out of dogs with
whalebone."

"And he is made a member of the Academy of Sciences for this?"

"No; of the French Academy."

"But what has the French Academy to do with all this?"

"I was going to tell you. It seems"--

"That his experiments have very considerably advanced the cause of
science, doubtless?"

"No; that his style of writing is very good."

"This must be very flattering to the feelings of the rabbits into whose
heads he has thrust pins, to the fowls whose bones he has dyed red, and
to the dogs whose spinal marrow he has punched out?"

Albert laughed.

"And the other one?" demanded the count.

"That one?"

"Yes, the third."

"The one in the dark blue coat?"

"Yes."

"He is a colleague of the count, and one of the most active opponents to
the idea of providing the Chamber of Peers with a uniform. He was very
successful upon that question. He stood badly with the Liberal papers,
but his noble opposition to the wishes of the court is now getting him
into favor with the journalists. They talk of making him an ambassador."

"And what are his claims to the peerage?"

"He has composed two or three comic operas, written four or five
articles in the Siecle, and voted five or six years on the ministerial
side."

"Bravo, Viscount," said Monte Cristo, smiling; "you ar