the nearest person happened to be a short , gray , elderly man-at-arms , who would have looked , richard decided , exactly like a recently retired minor official were it not for the tin hat , the surcoat , the rather clumsily knitted chain mail , and the spear ; instead he looked like a recently retired minor official who had , somewhat against his will , been dragooned into his local amateur dramatic society , where he had been forced to play a man-at-arms .