A smart engagement with a superior American force on Lake Champlain was his next exploit, in which, though unsuccessful, he found another opportunity of showing his coolness and bravery; and his services on this occasion gained him his lieutenant's commission. Shortly afterwards he very nearly captured, single-handed, the American Commander-in-Chief Arnold. The stock and buckle, which General Arnold left behind him in his flight, were long (and perhaps still are) preserved by the Pellew family. Joining Burgoyne's unlucky army, and sharing in all the dangers and hardships which it underwent, Pellew, though only twenty years old, was summoned to the council of war at Saratoga, at which (against his own advice) it was resolved, in October, 1777, to capitulate to an American force of double the strength of the English. On his way home to England, in a transport, he fought an American privateer, and beat her off with his usual pluck and skill. On receiving his commission to a guard-ship, he threatened to throw it up rather than remain at so inactive a post; and it was not until he declared his intention to command a privateer that he obtained his appointment to the _Licorne_, in which he sailed for Newfoundland in the spring of 1779. He returned, however, to England in the following winter, and joined the _Apollo_, under his old friend--his 'only one on earth,' as he said--Captain Pownoll, taking part in an engagement with the French frigate _Stanislaus_, on which occasion the Captain left to Pellew the honour of completing her capture. The old sloop _Hazard_, of which he was promoted to be commander, was his next ship, and the East Coast of Scotland his station in the summer of 1780. Then followed the _Pelican_, a French prize, whilst commanding which he drove ashore some French privateers near the Isle of Bass, an exploit for which he was made a post-captain on board the _Suffolk_:--thus obtaining every step in his profession as a reward for some successful action. When it is added that, whilst in temporary command of the _Artois_, he captured on 1st July, 1782, the French frigate _Prince of Robego_, we may conclude this part of his career by observing that this was his last service before the Peace, which left him without any employment in His Majesty's service for four years. The year 1783 saw him a denizen of Truro,[123] and married to Susan, daughter of J. Frowde, Esq., of Knowle, in Wiltshire. Doubtless, in his wooing, he told her-- 'Of all the wonders of the mighty deep, Tales that would make a maiden love to weep, Of perils manifold and strange, and storms, Battle, and wreck, and thousand feller forms, Which Death, careering on the terrible sea, Puts on to prove the true knight's constancy.'