The Napoleonic Wars had cost the lives of many tens of thousands of British soldiers between 1803 and 1814.  Even before the Battle of Waterloo, prisoners from both sides of the war were being repatriated.  Writing about the boats bringing these suffering men across the channel, the Journal de Paris published the following snippet on 10 May 1814:

Il en est arrivé six le 4 de ce mois à Cherbourg, avec 284 prisonniers de guerre.  Le six, une gabarre française est partie du même port pour l’Angleterre, avec 400 prisonniers anglais.

[Six such boats carrying 284 prisoners arrived in Cherbourg on the 4^th of this month.  On the 6^th, a French river barge left the same port for England, with 400 English prisoners.]

The British Army had not necessarily been supportive of its former fighting men.  Another report in May, but this time from the Sussex Advertiser, describes how a packet ship and “some French fishing boats laden with prisoners” arrived in Brighton.  The released prisoners had crossed France on foot, “begging their way through France, walking up to 40 miles a day before finding a port with boats that would carry them home”. 

And so, mainly, it was French fishing boats which brought the men to Brighton.

In one of these boats, there was a stowaway concealed “under some cordage and sails”.  The 30 or more bedraggled soldiers did not know he was there … neither did the crew until the boat was a few leagues from the shore at Brighton.  The lad was just 17 but won over the hearts by his confession to the captain.  First the lad apologised for hiding, and then said (according to the Sussex Advertiser): “he had heard so much of England, and her noble people, that he was determined to see British land and had used [his] stratagem for the accomplishment of his wishes.”  The chances that the lad spoke English are remote, but he certainly knew how to flatter whichever language he was using.

The lad was allowed to continue his sea journey and was allowed to land.  He appeared to be delighted with Brighton “and after perambulating the Town again and again, expressed a strong desire to remain in England.” 

History does not record whether he was given “right to remain.”