Editing Popish Plot (section)

===Height of the hysteria===
[[File:Houghton EB65 A100 680s4 - Popish Plot, solemn mock procession, 1679.jpg|thumb|Broadside, "The Solemn Mock Procession of the POPE, Cardinalls, Iesuits, Fryers etc: through y<sup>e</sup> City of London, November y<sup>e</sup> 17th. 1679."]]
On 24 November 1678, Oates claimed the Queen was working with the King's physician to poison him and enlisted the aid of "Captain" [[William Bedloe]], a notorious member of the London underworld. The King personally interrogated Oates, caught him out in a number of inaccuracies and lies, and ordered his arrest. However, a few days later, with the threat of constitutional crisis, Parliament forced the release of Oates.

Hysteria continued: [[Roger North (lawyer)|Roger North]] wrote that it was as though "the very Cabinet of Hell has been opened". Noblewomen carried firearms if they had to venture outdoors at night. Houses were searched for hidden guns, mostly without any significant result. Some Catholic widows tried to ensure their safety by marrying [[Anglican]] widowers. The House of Commons was searched – without result – in the expectation of a second [[Gunpowder Plot]].

Anyone even suspected of being Catholic was driven out of London and forbidden to be within {{convert|10|mi|km|spell=in}} of the city. [[William Staley]], a young Catholic banker, made a drunken threat against the King; within 10 days he was tried, convicted of plotting treason and executed. In calmer times, Staley's offence would probably have resulted in him being [[bound over]], a mild punishment. Oates, for his part, received a state apartment in [[Whitehall]] and an annual allowance. He soon presented new allegations, claiming assassins intended to shoot the King with silver bullets so the wound would not heal. The public invented their own stories, including a tale that the sound of digging had been heard near the House of Commons and rumours of a French invasion on the [[Isle of Purbeck]]. The evidence of Oates and Bedloe was supplemented by other informers; some like [[Thomas Dangerfield]], were notorious criminals, but others like [[Stephen Dugdale]], Robert Jenison and [[Edward Turberville]] were men of good social standing who from motives of greed or revenge denounced innocent victims, and by their apparently plausible evidence made the Plot seem more credible. Dugdale in particular made such a good initial impression that even the King for the first time "began to think that there might be somewhat in the Plot".{{sfn|Kenyon|1985|p=158}}