THE DEVIL OF THE MARSH (1893)

THE DEVIL OF THE MARSH (1893) – Written by H.B. Marriott Watson. Halloween Month continues with this review of a short horror piece about a unique female monster who inhabits the marsh. The story was first published in the 1893 collection Damnable Tales.

An unnamed narrator is making his way through the Great Marsh to once again meet with a seemingly beautiful woman with whom he has flirted and fallen in “love”. They have only ever met after dark and on the moors.

So enthralled is our narrator by the woman’s allure that he willingly overlooks all the weirdness of their courtship. After their most recent rendezvous he asked her to run away with him but she insisted that their first act of lovemaking take place deep within the marsh.   

This is the designated night and our horny hero grows more and more uneasy as he proceeds deeper into the bogs than he has ever ventured before. The narrator fears an approaching storm and cringes at half-seen figures in the darkness around him. 

Bestial sounds unlike any he has ever heard increase his alarm. Finally, the mysterious woman appears to our main character and they embrace. She makes enigmatic remarks like “I am a creature of this place. I had sworn you should behold me in my native sin ere you ravished me away.” 

Not even this dampens the narrator’s lust and the woman he is wooing goes on. “This is my prison, and I have inherited its properties. Have you no fear?” 

The frightened man bluffs his way through the conversation, insisting he is not afraid and wants nothing more than for them to be together. The she-creature makes her hot and bothered suitor state that he doesn’t care about her true nature or powers or habits.

The narrator describes the woman’s face taking on an air that reminds him of a cobra about to strike, but they are interrupted by the sudden emergence of one of the unseen monstrous figures who seem to lurk everywhere in the marsh.

In a sort of supernatural “You picked a fine time to leave me, Lucille” situation, the white-skinned, bent and malformed creature with long black hair runs through a catalogue of the wrongs done to him by the woman. He does this both to reproach the she-monster and to warn the narrator, her obvious next victim.

We learn that the woman is the Presence of the Marsh and that she entrances men, drains their health, minds and souls, then distorts their bodies with her ague-like affections. The marsh is her domain which she controls completely and the swamp-bottom is lined with the bones of untold numbers of the previous men she preyed upon over time. 

The Presence of the Marsh mocks the twisted creature and our narrator foolishly tries to chivalrously drive off her long-haired accuser. He is brushed aside and the creature and the Presence clash as the woman wraps a mist around the two combatants.

The now terrified narrator can only catch glimpses of things inhuman and human as the battle continues and the feral sounds made by the fighting creatures make his hair stand on end.

When the mist dissipates enough for our main character to partially make out what is going on, he can tell that the long-haired monstrosity has been killed and his remains are being sucked down into the marsh. The narrator flees in panic and as he makes his way out of the marsh he can still hear the cruel laughter of the Presence herself.

The Devil of the Marsh is a bit too short but it stays with you. Plus there is a lot of promise in the unique nature of the female predator, making for a nice change of pace from ghosts, vampires, witches, succubi, etc.

I’m genuinely surprised that nobody has ever bothered fleshing out the storyline to make either a horror short or even a feature film. Far thinner premises have been stretched out for cinematic treatment.