THE FIRST SUBMARINE CABLE 33 British officers fraternized to a great extent with the leading French families. As Captain Holland spoke French fluently, he was thus more welcome than were other English-speaking officers. Holland was at that time engaged in surveying operations. But his survey apparently included the feminine sex as well. When he had shelled the citadel, little did he think that his future wife was within those very walls which he was destroying. The young surveyor fell in love with the beautiful Marie Josephte Rolette , a daughter of one of the leading French families. Her father, a proud old Frenchman, was furious. He was dumbfounded at the very thought of French girls flirting with British soldiers. What! Marry an enemy! Not if he had any say in it. Besides, peace would restore the country to them and all would be as before . . . But the happy pair eloped. It is not known who married them, but it is supposed that some obscure priest on the St. Charles River performed the cere¬ mony. "There the grandson of one of Cromwell's Roundheads knelt beside a convent girl and made his marriage vows." In 1764, Captain Holland and his bride arrived on the Island. It must have been lonely for the little French wife at times. It is true that her husband had assistants who would be company, and there was Joye besides, but she was there at Holland Cove far from her own people. It is thought that their first son, "St. John's Jack," as they called him, was the first child of British parentage born on Prince Edward Island . I wonder if the dainty little Marie Josephte left St. John's Jack on the shore and went swimming in the cove beneath her home. I think she must have sat