Learn French: Après avoir couru, le voleur halète et cherche son souffle. - After running, the thief pants and catches his breath.

This is the présent de narration (historical present). Even though the story takes place in the past, French often shifts to the present tense to make a dramatic action feel more immediate and vivid. It puts the reader right in the moment the thief is panting.

Why do we say Après avoir couru instead of just Après courir?

In French, the preposition après is always followed by the past infinitive, never the present infinitive. You form this with the infinitive of the auxiliary verb (avoir or être) plus the past participle (couru). It translates literally to 'After having run.'

Does cherche son souffle literally translate to 'catches his breath'?

Not literally. Chercher means 'to look for' or 'to seek', so the phrase literally means 'seeks his breath'. It is the standard French way to express the English idiom 'to catch one's breath' after heavy exertion.

Why does halète have a grave accent if its infinitive is haleter?

Haleter (to pant) is a stem-changing verb. To keep the pronunciation correct, the unaccented e in the stem changes to an è whenever the ending of the conjugated verb is silent. This happens in the present tense for all singular forms and the third-person plural.