in Masquerade which directly adopted the language of Whig anti-Catholicism by depicting Nonconformists as agents of the Pope who sought to attack the existing social order and introduce their own tyrannical regime, invoking memories of the Rule of the Major-Generals. In Citt and Bumpkin he directly appealed to provincial English patriotism, accusing London-based Whigs of using sophistry to attack the Crown to which loyal Englishmen owed their allegiance. The Popish Plot presented greater dangers to L'Estrange. From 1680 his attacks on Titus Oates' confederates took up an increasing amount of his time. A rare concession to public feeling saw L'Estrange not attack Oates openly during the time of greatest hysteria in 1680-81, but attacks on related figures such as Miles Prance and Israel Tonge became a heavy part of his work. Prance's accusation that L'Estrange was a Catholic led to a genuine fear for his safety and contributed towards his brief exile in Edinburgh and The Hague during 1680. An anonymous woodcut of the time mocked L'Estrange as 'Towzer', the Court's attack dog fleeing to his master the Pope. This episode damaged his reputation at Court, as did his increasingly vitriolic 'bantering' towards Oates' allies which ultimately inflamed the public mood. L'Estrange had damaged his case with works such as Citt and Bumpkin which employed the language of anti-Court rhetoric for his own ends, and ultimately a 1680 Council of State hearing focused more on his reputation than on the substance of the Popish Plot. Oates' increasingly deranged accusations discredited his plots by the end of 1681 while attempts to replace the Duke of York as heir with the Duke of Monmouth likewise failed. This period represented a major victory for the pro-Court faction, becoming known as 'Tories', but L'Estrange found himself increasingly out of favour. In 1681 L'Estrange founded The Observator, a single sheet printed in double columns on both sides. It was written in the form of a dialogue between a Whig and a Tory (later Trimmer and Observator), with the bias on the side of the latter. During the six years of its existence, L'Estrange wrote with a consistent fierceness, meeting his enemies with personal attacks characterised by sharp wit. One of his main targets was Titus Oates, whose false allegations eventually brought about his conviction for perjury in 1685. The Observator was no longer a mouthpiece for the Court, but represented a provincial Toryism appealing to