About Lord Lovat's Robbery of a Diamond Ring

A singular anecdote is related of the famous Lord Lovat, of Jacobite tendencies. This nobleman was one evening in a ball-room in the house of Mrs. Howison Craufurd, of Crawfurdland, in the county of Ayr, and was engaged in conversation with the great-grandmother of that lady. As he was playfully examining and holding in his hand her diamond solitaire, a voice whispered in his ear "that government officers were in pursuit of him, and that he must decamp." Decamp he did, taking with him, perhaps by accident, the costly jewel. The lady was in the greatest trepidation at her loss, and her family were resolved to recover the jewel. Many years afterwards, on his return from France, Lovat, whose character in no respect rose above suspicion, was taxed with the robbery, and refunded a sum which gave twenty pounds to each of a host of granddaughters, then in their girlhood.