[93] The following "shrewd reply," which owes its point to Menestrier's account of the invention of cards, appeared in a weekly journal about three years ago. "Sir Walter Scott says, that the alleged origin of the invention of cards produced one of the shrewdest replies he had ever heard given in evidence. It was made by the late Dr. Gregory, at Edinburgh, to a counsel of great eminence at the Scottish bar. The doctor's testimony went to prove the insanity of the party whose mental capacity was the point at issue. On a cross-interrogation he admitted that the person in question played admirably at whist. 'And do you seriously say, doctor,' said the learned counsel, 'that a person having a superior capacity for a game so difficult, and which requires, in a pre-eminent degree, memory, judgment, and combination, can be at the same time deranged in his understanding?' 'I am no card-player,' said the doctor, with great address, 'but I have read in history that cards were invented for the amusement of an insane king.' The consequences of this reply were decisive." [94] About the beginning of the fifteenth century the passion for gaming appears to have been very prevalent in France; and persons who were addicted to it endeavoured to guard themselves from its fascinations by voluntary bonds, with a penalty in case of infraction. The following account of a bond of this kind is extracted from the Memoirs of the Academy of Dijon for 1828. "Mons. Baudot a trouvé deux actes de ce genre, qui méritent d'être conservés à cause de leur singularité. Le premier est tiré du protocole de Jehan Lebon, notaire, et de ses clercs Jehan Bizot, Guyot Bizot de Charmes, et Jehan Gros. On y lit qu'en 1407, il y eut convention de ne pas jouer pendant une année, entre Jehan Violier de Vollexon, boucher, à Dijon; Guillaume Garni, boucher, Huguenin de Grancey, tournestier (employé aux tournois), Vivien le Picardet, pâtissier, et Gorant de Barefort, coustellier, tous de Dijon, à peine de deux francs d'or au profit de ceux qui n'auront pas joué, et de deux francs d'or à lever par le Procureur de la Ville et Commune de Dijon, au profit de la Ville."--The second was a similar engagement, in the year 1505.