your having made me hetman, however great such an honour may be, nor
in honour of our parting from our comrades. To do both would be
fitting at a fitting time; but the moment before us is not such a
time. The work before us is great both in labour and in glory for the
Cossacks. Therefore let us drink all together, let us drink before all
else to the holy orthodox faith, that the day may finally come when it
may be spread over all the world, and that everywhere there may be but
one faith, and that all Mussulmans may become Christians. And let us
also drink together to the Setch, that it may stand long for the ruin
of the Mussulmans, and that every year there may issue forth from it
young men, each better, each handsomer than the other. And let us
drink to our own glory, that our grandsons and their sons may say that
there were once men who were not ashamed of comradeship, and who never
betrayed each other. Now to the faith, brother gentles, to the faith!"

"To the faith!" cried those standing in the ranks hard by, with thick
voices. "To the faith!" those more distant took up the cry; and all,
both young and old, drank to the faith.

"To the Setch!" said Taras, raising his hand high above his head.

"To the Setch!" echoed the foremost ranks. "To the Setch!" said the
old men, softly, twitching their grey moustaches; and eagerly as young
hawks, the youths repeated, "To the Setch!" And the distant plain
heard how the Cossacks mentioned their Setch.

"Now a last draught, comrades, to the glory of all Christians now
living in the world!"

And every Cossack drank a last draught to the glory of all Christians