Generate a sentence with "c1" difficulty and starts with: "the first moments".
The first moments of breathtaking delight gave way to sighs of deep distress; a cry escaped from someone; and then suddenly, as if they were being chased, they all charged, now no longer in their monkish cowls but dressed in festive white, yellow, blue or crimson courtiers' clothes, out of the dimly lit room towards the women, where they were received with insane, almost sinister laughter.