a town of the Low Countries, in Dutch Brabant, and in the marquisate of the same name. It is seated on an eminence, in the middle of a morass, about a mile and a half from the eastern branch of the Scheld, with which it has a communication by a navigable canal. The houses are well built, and the market-places and squares handsome and spacious. The church before the last siege was reckoned a good building, and so was the marquis's palace. It has a good tract of land under its jurisdiction, with several villages, and some islands in the Scheld. It has a very advantageous situation on the confines of Brabant, Holland, Zealand, and Flanders. It is strong by nature as well as by art, being so secured by the morasses about it, which are formed by the river Zoom, that it was reckoned impregnable. It was, however, taken in 1747 by the French, but it is thought not without the help of treachery. The fortifications are allowed to be the masterpiece of that great engineer Cohorn. It had been twice besieged before without success. The marquis of Spinola was the last but one who invested it, and he was forced to raise the siege with the loss of 10,000 men. E. Long. 4. 15. N. Lat. 51. 30.