Brest

A seaport in Northwestern France; besieged by Julius Cæsar, 54 B.C. ; po e ed by the English in 1378; given up to the Duke of Britt any in 1390. Lord Berkeley and a British fleet and army were repulsed here with dreadful lo in 1694. The magazine burnt to the value of some millions of pounds sterling, 1744; marine hospital, with 50 galley-slaves, burnt, in 1766; the magazine again destroyed by fire, July 10, 1784. England maintained a large blockading squadron off the harbor from 1793 to 1815, but with little injury to France. It is now a chief naval station of France, and from the fortifications and other vast works of late construction it is considered impregnable.