L'Estrange inverted the language of Whiggish opposition to the Court. In "An Account of the Growth of Knavery" he accused Marvell and other figures of playing to popular fears in order to sow social disorder and advance their own causes. His most striking work was "Popery 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.