This show of force compelled the Company to negotiate further. Hyder Ali, who was seeking diplomatic leverage against the Marathas, wanted an alliance of mutual defence and offence. The Company refused to accede to an offensive military treaty; the treaty signed at Madras on 29 March 1769, restored the "status quo ante bellum", except for Mysore's acquisition of Karur, and also included language that each side would help the other defend its territory. In summarising Hyder Ali's conduct of the war, biographer Lewin Bowring notes that he "evinced high qualities as a tactician and the sagacity of a born diplomatist."