e season deterred him
from advancing against Ticonderoga, and he soon afterwards returned to
Canada. The full import of this halt is too easily overlooked, with
consequent failure to appreciate the momentous influence exerted upon
the course of the Revolutionary War by this naval campaign, in which
Pellew bore so conspicuous a part. It has never been understood in
America, where the smallness of the immediate scale has withdrawn
attention from the greatness of the ultimate issue, in gaining time for
the preparations which resulted in the admittedly decisive victories
about Saratoga. "If we could have begun our expedition four weeks
earlier," wrote a German general there present, "I am satisfied
everything would have been ended this year [1776]; were our whole army
here, it would be an easy matter to drive the enemy from their
entrenchments at Ticonderoga." The delay, not of four weeks only, but of
the whole summer, was obtained by the naval force organized upon
Champlain by Arnold and his superior, General Schuyler. The following
year the invasion was resumed, under General Burgoyne. Pellew
accompanied him with a body of seamen, taking part in all the operations
down to the final surrender. Burgoyne, indeed, afterwards chaffed him
with being the cause of the disaster, by rebuilding the bridge which
enabled the army to cross from the east bank of the Hudson to the west.

Returning to England in the early part of 1778, Pellew was made
lieutenant, and in 1780 we find him again serving under Captain Pownoll,
as first lieutenant of the _Apollo_ frigate. On the 15th of June, in the
same year, the _Apollo_ met the French frigate _Stanislas_. A severe
action followed, and at the end of an hour Pownoll was shot through the
body. As his young friend raised him from the deck, he had barely time
to say, "Pellew, I know you won't give his Majesty's ship away," and
immediately expired. The engagement lasted an hour longer, when the
enemy, which had all the time been standing in for the Belgian coast,
took the ground, the most of her spars, already wounded, going overboard
with the shock. The _Apollo_ had hauled off a few moments before,
finding that she had less than five feet of water under her keel.

Though unable again to attack the _Stanislas_, which claimed the
protection of the neutral flag, the result was substantially a victory;
but to Pellew's grief for the death of a tried friend was added the
material loss of a powerful p