SEBASTIAN LE PRESTRE, SEIGNEUR DE, marshal of France, and the greatest engineer that country ever produced, was born in 1633. He displayed his knowledge of fortification in the course of many sieges, and his services were rewarded with the first military honours. He was made governor of Lille in 1668, commissary general of the fortifications of France in 1678, governor of the maritime parts of Flanders in 1689, and a marshal of France in 1703. He died in 1707, after having brought the arts of attacking and defending fortified places to a degree of perfection unknown before. His writings on these subjects are in great esteem.