(no subject)

[quem98.livejournal.com]

This is making me crazy.

For my thesis, I'm reading these 18th century Russian texts. In one of them, a general is explaining what he supposedly did to one of his captured enemies:

зацепив его за нос, драл ему по спину железными гребнями, и тою муку замучил досмерти.

It's a really happy passage.
So, they hooked him (strung him up by the nose) and beat him along the spine with metal [word I don't know], and he endured such torture until he died.

So I get that they tortured hime to death, but with what? Гребень as I understand it, means comb or gear... neither of which makes sense as a torture implement. So what would be a good translation of гребень in this case?

And one more question, while I'm at it.
This comes from a different document:
did I get the translation right?
Уфа уже взять и не с повинними ничего не учиненно, а противящаяся преданы смерти

"Ufa has been taken, and nothing was done with the faithful, but those who opposed us were condemned to death".