The sailing orders which Allen, who now had the rank of master-commandant, received, directed him to carry to France Mr. William H. Crawford, the newly appointed American Minister to that nation. The _Argus_ sailed on this errand from New York on June 18, 1813, and reached L’Orient twenty-three days later. Having refitted his ship, Captain Allen emulated the famous deeds of John Paul Jones and other Revolutionary heroes by sailing boldly into the English Channel and thence around Land’s End into the Irish Sea. It was a short but a brilliant cruise. The _Argus_ sailed on July 14, 1813. Ship after ship was taken, some of them right under the cliffs of the British coast. Some were sunk and some were burned. A few of the more valuable were manned and sent to French ports. Indeed, so many prizes were taken that the crew became worn out with the work. The _Argus_ was at sea but one month and yet twenty ships, valued at $2,500,000, were taken in that time. Of course all hands had to be on deck, and at work during every chase, and while each prize was disposed of. They were far too successful for their own personal welfare. As in the days when the _Reprisal_, under Captain Lambert Wickes, and the _Surprise_, under Captain Gustavus Connyngham, so now the British ship-merchants were filled with dismay and the insurance companies put up the rate on war-risks to a fabulous per cent. Cruisers were sent hurriedly to sea in search of the bold Yankee, and the _Argus_ must needs fight or run very soon. Just one month from the day she sailed, the hour for a choice between these two courses had arrived. At 5 o’clock on August 14, 1813, the lookout saw a big British brig coming down the wind under a full press of canvas. It was the _Pelican_, Captain John Fordyce Maples. Maples had put into Cork three days before, and had learned that a Yankee cruiser, of no great force, was destroying the British coastwise trade, and he at once sailed in search of the bold offender. He was enabled to find the _Argus_ by what had seemed to the Americans a continuance of their good-luck. The _Pelican_ came into view at 5 o’clock in the morning after the crew of the _Argus_ had been up about all night chasing and destroying a vessel loaded with wine from Oporto, Portugal. They had destroyed her by setting fire to her, and the light of the flames had served as a beacon to guide the _Pelican_ to the scene. Very soon it became apparent that the enemy was one of the largest of the British war-brigs and therefore more than a match in force for the American sloop. Captain Allen, in consideration of his position and the condition of his crew--especially the condition of his crew--would have been justified in crowding sail and leaving the slower Englishman. But Allen was not that kind of a man.