 Before fighting, he decided to safeguard Mathilde's future in the event of his death by marrying her.Heine continued to write reports for Cotta's "Allgemeine Zeitung" (and, when Cotta died, for his son and successor).One event which really galvanised him was the 1840 Damascus Affair in which Jews in Damascus had been subject to blood libel and accused of murdering an old Catholic monk.