SOURCE: "The Devil of the Marsh" (Diogenes of London, 1893) by H. B. Marriott-Watson

DESCRIPTION: "Then suddenly out of the night issued the hoarse and hideous croaking I had heard upon my passage. I reached out my arm to take her hand, but in an instant the mists broke over us, and I was groping in the vacancy. Something like panic took hold of me, and, beating through the blind obscurity, I rushed over the flat, calling upon her. In a little the swirl went by, and I perceived her upon the margin of the swamp, her arm raised as in imperious command. I ran to her, but stopped, amazed and shaken by a fearful sight. Low by the dripping reeds crouched a small squat thing, in the likeness of a monstrous frog, coughing and choking in its throat. As I stared, the creature rose upon its legs and disclosed a horrid human resemblance. Its face was white and thin, with long black hair; its body gnarled and twisted as with the ague of a thousand years. Shaking, it whined in a breathless voice, pointing a skeleton finger at the woman by my side." ("The Devil of the Marsh" by H. B. Marriott-Watson)

NOTES: The frog man is one of the Devil of the Marsh's victims. He clings possessively to her, not wanting the new victim to replace him.

HISTORY: Marriott-Watson's thrill of horror largely comes from the victim, the frog man, who even in his terrible state, is still completely in love with the Devil of the Marsh. The author is writing about a certain kind of woman but disguising it as a horror story.