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160 was marching up into the highlands of Mysore. In the last week of November Seringapatam itself lay within easy reach, while the fierce Sultán was pressing the siege of Mangalore. But Lord Macartney, not heeding the counsel and the commands of Hastings, had already begun to treat with Tipú for the peace which Fullarton was prepared to dictate under the walls of Tipú's capital. That officer was now ordered to fall back, in compliance with a truce which the faithless Sultán was openly breaking. Not till after the surrender of Mangalore in January, 1784, did Tipú deign to receive the envoys from Madras, in order to discuss the terms of a treaty which flattered his pride at the expense of those who had already gone near to crush him. 'You quit the reins, and how will you manage the beast?' was Swartz's remark to Fullarton when they met below the Gháts. On the 11th March, 1784, the three English commissioners stood before the Sultán for two hours, beseeching him to sign the treaty which they held in their hands. The envoys from Poona and Haidarábád pleaded earnestly to the same effect. At last he agreed to ratify a peace which restored to each party their former possessions, and rescued more than a thousand Englishmen and nearly as many Sepoys from the slow tortures of prison life in Mysore.