Half-a-dozen of the troopers about us stayed only to fling their reins to one of their number, and then followed, their great boots clattering on the planks.
My breath came fast and short, for I felt it was a crisis.

It was a race between the two parties, or rather between the Vidame and the leaders of the mob.

The latter had the shorter way to go.

But on the narrow steps they were carried off their feet by the press behind them, and fell over and hampered one another and lost time.

The Vidame, free from this drawback, was some way along the gallery before they had set foot on it.
How I prayed--amid a scene of the wildest uproar and excitement--that the mob might be first! Let there be only a short conflict between Bezers' men and the people, and in the confusion Pavannes might yet escape.