Note 10 — MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, EXILE, AND CONVERSATIONS, OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON. (continued 4)

Since the first appearance of this work, it has been remarked to me that this is an anachronism; as the gilding of the dome of the Invalids was begun before the campaign in Russia. It was the minarets of Cairo and not the steeples of Moscow which must have suggested the idea to Napoleon; and this was no doubt what he meant to say: it is easy to imagine that a mistake of this kind might be made by him in a conversation without any special object: in fact every body is liable to such mistakes.