the retreat. Fighting like a
lion, he opposed the enemy's advance long enough to secure the escape of
six of his vessels; and then, seeing his one consort forced to strike,
he ran his own galley ashore and set her on fire. "Arnold," says the
naval historian Cooper, "covered himself with glory, and his example
seems to have been nobly followed by most of his officers and men. The
manner in which the Congress was fought until she had covered the
retreat of the galleys, and the stubborn resolution with which she was
defended until destroyed, converted the disasters of this part of the
day into a species of triumph." "The Americans," says a contemporary
British writer, "chiefly gloried in the dangerous attention paid by
Arnold to a nice point of honor, in keeping his flag flying, and not
quitting his galley till she was in flames, lest the enemy should have
boarded and struck it."

Pellew received like recognition, not, perhaps, from the popular voice,
but from his official superiors. Douglas, the senior naval officer at
Quebec, who was made a baronet in reward of these operations, Lord Howe
at New York, and the First Lord of the Admiralty in England, all sent
him personal letters of commendation; and the two latter promised him
promotion as soon as he came within their respective jurisdictions. His
continuance at the front of operations during this and the following
year therefore postponed his deserved advancement to a lieutenancy, by
retaining him from the "jurisdiction" of those able to bestow it.

The two gallant enemies were soon again brought together in an incident
which came near to change the career of one of them, and, in so doing,
to modify seriously the fortunes of many others. Arnold having one day
pulled out on the open lake, in his venturesome manner, Pellew gave
chase in another boat. The Americans being hard pressed and capture
probable, Arnold unbuckled his stock and himself took an oar. So nearly
caught was he, that he had to escape into the bushes, leaving behind him
stock and buckle; and these, as late as sixty years after, remained in
the possession of Pellew's brother. Had he thus been deprived of the
opportunity that Saratoga gave him the next year, Arnold's name might
now be known to us only as that of the brave officer who kept his
country's flag flying till his vessel was in flames.

On the 14th of October Carleton landed at Crown Point, which the
Americans had abandoned; but the lateness of th