A good story of the French gentleman-burglar translated from the original French. As posted on Project Gutenberg.

It takes a bit of reading (for me at least) to get the meat of what is going on as I am distracted by the language. I suspect that it is the translation and the translator since I have almost no problems with most native English writers of this period. The story is good, just give it time and do not let the language get in your way.