The rise of André Hercule Fleury had been remarkable. Though without great talents or high connexions--he was the son of a collector of taxes at his native town of Lodève--he had understood so well the art of insinuating himself into the good graces of every one who was in a position to advance his fortunes, that obstacles disappeared before him as snow melts in the sun. “He was what one might call a true wheedler,” writes Saint-Simon, who allows us to perceive in the portrait which he has drawn of him something of the jealousy which his extraordinary good fortune had inspired. He wheedled himself into the favour of the Cardinal de Bonzy, who brought him to Court and obtained for him the post of almoner to Queen Maria Theresa; he wheedled himself into that of his royal mistress, of the Duchesse de Bourgogne, of the Duc and Duchesse du Maine, and, finally, into that of Louis XIV., who a few months before his death nominated him preceptor to the Dauphin. [Illustration: ANDRÉ HERCULE, CARDINAL DE FLEURY FROM AN ENGRAVING BY P. DREVET, AFTER THE PAINTING BY HYACINTHE RIGAUD] If he failed to cultivate the good qualities which Louis XV. showed as a child, and cannot therefore escape some of the responsibility for the scandals and the disasters of that unfortunate reign, he succeeded little by little in gaining the entire confidence of his pupil. Jealous of his influence, Philippe d’Orléans endeavoured to separate him from the boy by the offer of the archbishopric of Rheims, the first episcopal dignity in the realm. But Fleury knew where his true interests lay, and declined it. Nothing, he declared, should distract him from the duty which he owed to his young Sovereign. When, in 1722, Louis XV.’s _gouverneur_, the Maréchal de Villeroy, was banished by the Regent from Court, Fleury, deeming that his honour obliged him to share the disgrace of his superior and protector, followed him into exile. But his departure occasioned the young King such distress that he lost no time in recalling him, by a letter in his own hand--an action upon which it is probable the astute old gentleman had confidently counted. At the time of the death of Philippe d’Orléans, Fleury was in his seventy-first year, an age at which most men have renounced ambition and are thinking only of repose. The Bishop of Fréjus, however, felt that he had some years of activity yet before him, and he was resolved to climb to the very pinnacle of fortune. He might easily have persuaded Louis XV. to make him Prime Minister, but he counselled the young King to entrust the direction of affairs to the Duc de Bourbon; perhaps, because he hoped to govern through him; more probably, because he foresaw that _Monsieur le Duc’s_ Ministry must be of brief duration, and that his own elevation would be far better received after the prince had been allowed his chance.