“San Jerome, save us, we are loo’d
      If this should be the sprite;
    The big Duende, best we bid
      His boggartship good night.”

      Como siempre al jugador,
    Lo sostiene la esperanza,
    Fundaron la confianza,
    En que un Duende es vividor.

    But hope, the gambler’s enemy,
      Beguiled them to their ruin;
    “These ugly sprites, they say, are rich,
      Yet yield nought without wooing.

      Que su ciencia atrae dinero,
    Y medios paro adquirirlo,
    Y era cuerdo el admitirlo,
    Dandole el lugar primero.

    “His skill may help us to repair
      Our cloaks, and eke our breeches;
    Best speak him fair.  We’ll worship Nick
      If he but grant us riches!”

      Mas el duende que escuchaba
    La trama de los fulleros,
    Quiso en tales caballeros,
    Vengar, lo que suspiraba.

    The sly Duende, like a mouse,
      Hearkening behind the wall,
    Did now resolve he quickly would
      The greedy rogues bemaul

    En efecto, agigantado,
    Con negro manto talar,
    Cornamenta singular,
    Ufias largas y barbado.

    A mighty giant, lo he comes. 
      Wrapped in a cloak of sable;
    With horns, hoofs, nails, and beard yclad,
      He jumped upon the table!

      Un garrote enarbolado
    Y brotando espuma y fuego,
    Les dijo:  Yo devo al juego
    Mi desgracia y este estado.

    A cudgel of some seven years’ growth
      He brandished.  Fire and smoke
    Shot from his lips, while thus he spake;—­
      “I’ll gripe you gambling folk.

      Los fulleros me han quitado
    Con mi dinero, la vida,
    Y pues que sois homicida
    De todo hombre inocente!

    “To gaming my disgrace I owe,
      With money went my wife;
    ’Tis such as you the murderers be,—­
      This night shall end your life!

      No quede vicho viviente,
    En toda culta nacion,
    Que ejerza la profesion
    De fullero y vagamundo.

    “In every nation, called refined,
      Or gamblers or their wives,
    Or wealthy wight shall ne’er be found,
      Who shakes the bones and thrives.”

      Y dando un grito profundo,
    Su garrote descargando,
    A todos fue despachando,
    Sin dejar uno en el mundo.

    With that a loud and horrid yell
      He gave.  And cudgel flew
    Broadside amongst them; when, like vermin, he
      Dispatched the hungry crew!

    No extinguio, sin duda, el Duende,
      Toda la mala semilla,
      Pues hay muchos, como el Duende,
      Sin camisa, y sin capilla.

    But woe is me, they were not all destroyed. 
    For many still, by these cursed arts decoyed,
    Shoeless and shirtless, miserable sinners,
    Are seen, snuffing, with empty wind, their dinners!