11 Under the ancien régime, wealthy parents sent their newborns to the country to be nursed, and then raised

11 Under the ancien régime, wealthy parents sent their newborns to the country to be nursed, and then raised for up to five years. The marquis is referring to the supposedly unshakable lifelong loyalty of these foster families— the frères et soeurs de lait,literally milk-brothers and -sisters—to their young noble charges: part and parcel of the nostalgia of these men for the aristocratic golden age, when peasants knew their place and their duty to their betters.