☙ ☙ ☙ [Illustration: +Observation-Post and Telemetric Station of the Tirpitz Battery, near Mariakerke-Bains.+ _(See pages 63-64.)_] OSTEND. In the 9th century, Ostend, then a hamlet, was situated at the eastern end _(Oostende)_ of a sand-bar belonging to the powerful St. Bertin Abbey of St. Omer. Incursions by the Normans and the ravages of the sea had almost entirely annihilated it when, in the 9th century, Robert le Frison built a chapel to Our Lady there, around which a new village grew up. Thanks to the herring fisheries on the Flemish coast--a flourishing industry in the Middle-Ages, but since abandoned--Ostend grew and prospered. The construction of defence-works at the end of the 16th century, by Guillaume-le-Taciturne, conferred on the town the dangerous honour of becoming the last rampart of the Utrecht Confederation against the Spaniards of the southern provinces, and resulted in one of the longest and bloodiest sieges (1601-1603) recorded in history. This three years' struggle cost one hundred thousand lives and reduced the town to ruins. Later, Ostend sustained further destructive sieges, e.g. by the English, under Marlborough, in 1706; by the French under Marshal Lowendhal in 1745. Meanwhile, and in the latter part of the 18th century, various factors helped to restore the town's former prosperity, i.e. the "Peace of Utrecht" (1713) which closed the Escaut, thus paralysing Antwerp in favour of Ostend; and the wealthy "Indian Company" founded there, but broken up ten years later for political reasons. The "Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle" (1748) having ceded the town to Austria, Joseph II caused the maritime installations to be completed, and made it a free port, into which the belligerent ships put during the American War. This revived prosperity was again annihilated by revolution and the Napoleonic wars. In the 19th century, Ostend discovered a new and fruitful source of wealth in sea-bathing, and eventually developed into one of Europe's premier seaside resorts. Under the impulsion of Leopold II, who frequently resided there, extensive works were carried out in the town and port at the beginning of the present century. The channel was widened, the jetties rebuilt, the port enlarged. A monumental bridge, the present maritime station, and the church of St. Peter and Paul were built. The dike was prolonged westwards and bordered with luxurious buildings. Parks and public gardens were laid out. To the east, the Lighthouse Quarter was transformed, and the Royal Road in the Dunes to Blankenberghe was made.